Twin Moons
by Fictatious
Summary: Eight months after Celena's return to her home, a astrological event enables her and Dialandau to become separate individuals.
1. A Long Anticipated Arrival

Twin Moons

Prologue

A Long Anticipated Arrival

Mateci glanced out her window at the moons as she stirred the pot of stew on her stove. They hung beautiful, bright and full above the trees. They would not be full together again for centuries. It was the perfect night for something extraordinary to happen. The air was thick and busy with energy and her whole body buzzed with the feel of magic. She looked again at the three settings on the table in the middle of her tiny, one-room house and wondered when her guests would be arriving. She was sure that they would be terribly interesting. Whatever happened tonight would have to be terribly interesting, such was the nature of The Night of Twin Moons.

She suddenly felt a tug at her mind and knew her guests were on their way. She closed her eyes and concentrated. There was something very confusing about them. Something not quite right. They were trapped somehow. As she pulled them to her she dared not hope that they would--

The whole room filled with a searing white light and a pained wail. As the light faded she could see a young woman writhing on the floor and whimpering, mud from tears and dust staining her cheeks.

Mateci's mouth pulled itself into a delighted smile as she looked into the girl, her eye's piercing through the physical world into the spirit plain. She desperately tried to contain her excitement as, after carefully removing the stewpot from the heat, she hurried over to the cupboard where she kept her herbs and plucked a jar from on of the shelves within.

Mateci knelt down beside the struggling girl and pried her mouth open. The poor dears seemed not to even notice as Mateci carefully placed a dried leaf on her tongue. Mateci whispered a short verse and the girl went limp. She now appeared to be peacefully sleeping. Mateci pulled the thin body to the middle of her plank wood floor where she carefully folded its delicate silk-clad arms.

From the bookshelf that covered the largest wall of her house, Mateci pulled a small, leather bound book that had been given to her by her mother who had been given it by her mother and so on. She laid it on the table and tenderly pulled open its cover. The pages were worn and well read, the cover was slowly decaying and the fingerprints of countless witches before her covered the pages, but the spell contained within had not been performed since the time of the witchi who's handwriting covered the pages.

Mateci glanced lovingly over the pages. She had read them often enough to have the whole thing memorized, but this was the sort of thing one just couldn't get wrong. Often she had dreamed that she would be the lucky witch to sing this ritual again. So in love with the idea of it she was, that she had always kept the more exotic supplies for it ready and fresh.

She crossed the room to her bed and pulled a small trunk from under it, which she dragged over to where the unconscious figure lay. She poured the skeleton within out next to it then picked up the skull and placed it along side the head of the young woman.

Mateci flew about the room in a joyful daze, singing in some sweet, strange language as she gathered bottles and jars and began sprinkling the body and skeleton with spicy smelling oils and herbs.

Next she hurried to her sewing box and brought out a pin. She carefully cleansed it to make sure nothing on it would interfere with the spell and then gently pricked the girl's finger. She squeezed the pricked finger just above the forehead of the skull and let one drop of blood fall there, then placed the arm back across the thin torso.

This done, Mateci pulled a bit of chalk from her pocket and began drawing symbols and words of power on the floor around the skeleton and body. She fought to keep her singing slow and measured as her heart pounded with excitement.

After entirely too long for Mateci's tastes, she finished drawing the glyphs on her floor and returned the chalk to her pocket. Here her singing grew stronger and louder. She pulled another bottle from the cupboard and began to flick bitter smelling oil at the girl and the bone pile within her chalk markings.

Her song grew so that it echoed off mountains, shook the forests and valleys and made the rivers flow to its rhythm. She closed her eyes and kept singing, praying to nature to allow her to bend its laws to make what should but couldn't be be. Her skin prickled and her skirts clung, here hair rose from her head and a smell of ozone permeated the spice of her herbs. Her voice was impossibly loud and infinitely quiet. The energy around Mateci swelled stronger and stronger making her feel as though she was about to be hit by lightning. She heard the rattling, scraping sound of the bones pulling themselves into their proper shape. As she struck the last note of the song, the energy swelled itself toward the middle of the room, spiraling down like a whirlpool.

Then everything was silent and still. Mateci opened her eyes and smiled at the two figures lying on the floor, their arms crossed over their chests. She went to the closet and fetched a blanket to drape over the young man and then returned to preparing supper. Her guests would no doubt be hungry when they woke.


	2. Questions for a Full Belly

Twin Moons

Chapter One

Questions for a Full Belly

'Hey,' Dilandau muttered sleepily.

He felt stirring near him followed by a soft 'Hm?'

'Where are we?' he questioned the girl he knew was somewhere near him in the darkness.

'Oh good, you're awake!' piped a voice Dilandau had never heard before.

That wasn't right.

His eyes flew open and he found himself looking up at the underside of a thatched roof with various things drying from the rafters.

'Ngh...' came a more familiar voice from beside him.

Dilandau turned his head toward the noise to see a young woman, very similar to himself in appearance, blearily starting to sit up. He shrieked and threw himself away from her. Then he became aware of another problem.

'Where are my _clothes_?' he demanded pulling the blanket, that seemed to have been covering, him tightly around his person.

'Well you arrived without a body. I'd like to know how you intend to have clothes without a body!' Dilandau looked in the direction of that same unfamiliar voice.

A young woman about his own age, wearing a plain, brown, cotton dress and matching head scarf, was carefully pulling a large pot off it's hooks over a stone fire place.

'Hello. Who are you?' the blonde girl beside him asked with a yawn.

The plainly dressed girl smiled warmly back at her, 'My name's Mateci, Witchi of Kalaster Village. Hold on, I think I might have something around to fit the young man.'

Mateci set the pot on the hearth and bustled to one of the many cupboards in her tiny, one-room cottage. 'Let's see... you're fairly tall but rather thin... no, these won't do... Ah, here, these ones will work with a belt... and a shirt... here we go,' she turned back to her guests and smiled at them, tossing a bundle of clothes at Dilandau, 'And what are you're names, my dears?'

'Celena,' the blonde girl piped cheerfully.

'Oh... that would make sense...' Dilandau mused as he distractedly looked for anything like a place to change in the little single-roomed cottage, '... Dilandau.' 

'Very good. Come then Celena, turn your back so he can change,' Mateci said, turning back to the pot of stew and making sure that the bottom hadn't burned. 

'Oh, right,' Celena turned away from Dilandau and walked over to see what Mateci was doing.

Dilandau was about to protest, wanting to know what was happening, but stopped realizing there was far more important business to attend to. He quickly pulled on the bland brown trousers, fastening them with a cloth belt, and pulled the loose gray tunic over his head. He then turned to where the two women were standing by the mantle, 'Done. Who are you? Why are we here? Why are we both real? What did you do? How did we get here?'

'Dear me,' Mateci laughed, 'One thing at a time. First thing's first, let's get some food into you both.'

As she said that, Dilandau realized how hungry he was. He felt as though he hadn't eaten in months. He smiled wryly to himself realizing that he really _hadn't_ eaten in months. 'But--'

'There now, Celena, be a dear and carry this to the table, won't you. Come now, Dilandau, sit down.'

Dilandau opened and closed his mouth uselessly. He felt sorely out of practice for speaking, it had been so long since he'd conversed with anyone but Celena. After a moment he gave up and sat down at one of the three chairs round the table.

'Ah, this is nice,' Mateci commented as Celena and Dilandau found themselves ravenously inhaling the thick, rich stew and bread in front of them. 'It's been so long since I've had company for supper.'

'Murgh,' Dilandau swallowed the chunk of bread in his mouth as Celena giggled. 'But who are you?'

'I told you, my name's Mateci and--'

'Yes yes, but how should we know you?'

'Because I introduced myself to you a few minutes ago.'

Dilandau gritted his teeth with annoyance. 'What are we doing here?'

'You needed my services so you came to see me. Just like everyone else,' Mateci smiled cheerfully.

Dilandau stared at her a moment before turning to Celena, 'Did you go to her?' 

Celena looked up from her bowl, which was now empty, and shrugged, 'I don't remember.'

Dilandau glared at her. She was so annoying sometimes. 'Well then how did we get here?' he demanded.

'You came in a mystic pillar of light,' Mateci supplied helpfully as she refilled Celena's bowl.

Dilandau stared at her, as Celena once more became too absorbed in eating to have much interest. 'Why?'

'Because you needed my services, like I said. Eat you stew.'

'You split us apart... using witchcraft...'

'Yes, it's a beautiful spell really. I've just been dying to do it all my life! I'm so glad I got the chance,' Mateci giggled, showing her youth for the first time.

'Why? What do you want?' Dilandau glared at her.

'Nothing at all!' Mateci grinned, 'Actually...'

'I knew it.'

'I would appreciate if you two wrote me from time to time, I'd like to know how you get on.'

'I'd be glad to!' Celena looked up from her second empty bowl.

'Hold on! Why did you help us?' Dilandau knew he couldn't trust this strange woman. Nobody helped people without expecting reward.

Mateci smiled warmly back at him, 'Because that's what I do. I help people. A witch has to help people whenever they can.'

'Why?'

'Because it's part of being a witch. Now finish your supper, your far too thin.'


	3. Homecoming and Chickens

Twin Moons

Chapter Two

Homecoming and Chicken Eggs

Dilandau glared angrily at the ceiling from his blanket role on the floor of Mateci's cottage. He was quite thoroughly annoyed with the evening's events. He told himself that he was annoyed that some witchi had interfered with his life unbidden and not that he was absolutely terrified of what should come next.

He'd never had control over his life. Now he didn't even have control over not having control. That stupid witchi had ripped him out of Celena and sent him out into a world that hated him and in which he had no proper place. He wasn't even sure if he really existed. Now he was meant to make his own decisions. Damn. He had no idea what to do.

He looked to where Celena lay, a few feet from him. She looked happy and content as she slept soundly under the plain, undyed wool blankets Mateci had given them for the night.

Of course she was happy. She was rid of him.

Nobody wanted him anymore. Not now that there wasn't any fighting. He wasn't of use to anyone but as a weapon. It wasn't fair.

He bit his lip hard as he felt emotion bubbling within him. He concentrated stubbornly on the pain to put despair out of his mind.

He hated the time just before sleep numbed him. First he had to spend eons thinking. He hated thinking. It only depressed him. Letting his mind wander was one of the most tormenting things he could do. And what bothered him most was how clearly he was thinking now. Usually his thoughts were so blurry and confused at best, now they were sharp and clear. It made everything seem infinitely more terrible.

The last thing he wanted to think about was death, so of course that was all he could think about. All his memories seemed far more poignant than they had ever been before. He remembered faces... so many faces. How had he noticed so many of the faces he was killing when he'd been in such a blind frenzy? It didn't make sense at all.

He shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't the stiff, wooden floor that made him uncomfortable; it was the steady flow of horror he was feeling. None of it made sense. It was irritating him. He couldn't seem to remember half these memories. That didn't make sense either. How could he not remember memories that he was remembering right now? He just couldn't remember ever having had them before. Like the memories of a dream or something.

He shivered and rolled onto his stomach. Exhaustion was finally starting to creep over him and he welcomed it fully, longing to escape this horrible thinking.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'Palas is just half a days walk from here, you should be able to get back home well before sunset. I'll pack you both lunches, of course, and lets see... You'll be needing hats to keep the sun off your heads... here we are!' Mateci was once again a ball of cheerful energy flying about the room as Dilandau and Celena ate the hearty breakfast she had prepared for them.

'Now I want you to keep to the main roads and watch out for trouble, you never know who'll be out harassing the travelers on such a fine day. I'm packing you some water here. There we go. I think that's everything. I want you to write me soon, Celena dear. It's really been such a pleasure.'

As soon as the two had finished eating Mateci shuffled them out the door and gave them directions to the main road leading to Palas. She waved them on their way as they drifted down the path from her home.

'Where are we going?' Dilandau asked as Celena waved back at Mateci.

'Home of course,' Celena answered cheerfully.

Dilandau grimaced, 'You mean Schezar's house.'

'Yes, of course. Allen is probably all upset that we're missing.'

'That you're missing,' Dilandau corrected, 'He's not going to be happy to see me in the least.'

'Don't worry, he'll be perfectly fine.'

'No he won't. And I don't want to go. I should just go somewhere else. No, I should just curl up and die somewhere,' Dilandau said bitterly.

Celena looked at him sadly, 'Now that's just nonsense. You can't expect me to walk home all by myself! A girl just can't go wandering round the countryside with no one to protect her! I'd be mugged for sure!'

Dilandau snorted.

'Besides,' Celena continued, 'I don't want you to die.'

Hearing that made Dilandau feel very warm. He felt a rush of joy that someone in this world cared about him. But now he knew he had to follow her, his only friend in the world, even if that meant following her back to Allen Schezar.

Dilandau sighed as they reached a fork in the rode. The left lead to Palas, the right to some other place. Celena started down the left without hesitation but Dilandau hung back a minute, musing about taking the other, going somewhere no one would recognize him. Starting new.

Celena glanced back at him questioningly. He gazed back at her for a moment before following her, toward Palas. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'But a chicken had to lay the egg,' protested Dilandau.

'Yes,' agreed Celena, 'but that chicken had to hatch from the egg first.'

Dilandau chewed his lip annoyedly, sure he wouldn't be able to get this stupid question out of his head the rest of the day.

'Well, suppose the Sky God created a bunch of chicken eggs. They'd be trampled or eaten by the other animals He created and then there wouldn't be any chickens. And other sorts of animals don't hatch from eggs. So it would make sense that they should all be created as adult animals,' Celena mused. 

'Yes but when have the gods ever made any sense!' Dilandau flung up his arms. 'All right, look, chickens were bread from smaller game birds that weren't chickens. Over generations of selective breading they turned little field birds into chickens.' 

'So?'

'So the egg came first because something that wasn't quite a chicken yet laid an egg that would hatch into a real chicken!'

'Ah,' Celena smiled, 'mystery solved. Now I suppose we shall have to find another... All right, I've got one. What is the sound of one hand clapping?'

'Easy,' Dilandau grinned and held up a hand. He began slapping his fingers against the palm of the same hand to produce a clap-like sound.

Celena burst into laughter and Dilandau smiled appreciatively at this reaction. He had been so absorbed in the conversation that he'd stopped noticing their surroundings hours ago. It wasn't until he heard a shout and looked up that he realized they had reached the Schezar manor. He began to feel very cold again.

'CELENA!' a figure clad in the frilly, blue garb of a Night of Caeli came running down the front path toward them. Dilandau leapt back as Allen Schezar flung himself around his little sister, nearly knocking her off her feet. 'Celenawherehaveyoubeen?Areyouallright?Whois--' He stopped dead and his mouth fell open as he stared in disbelief at Dilandau. 'What...?'

'I had a wonderful time Brother! I'm sorry I worried you. I met the nicest witchi and I really must write her and tell her I got home safely. Will you help me write a letter to her?' Celena smiled happily up at her elder brother.

Allen stared from Celena to Dilandau and back. Dilandau was glaring coolly back, wearing a mask of cold indifference.

'And Dilandau will be able to stay in one of the spare rooms of course. I'm awfully hungry Brother, do you think supper will be ready soon?' Celena tactfully drew Allen's attention back to her with a warm, innocent smile.

'Yes...' Allen felt very lost and confused.

'All right then. Come on, Dilandau, we should certainly wash up before mealtime. I'll show you were the nicest spare room is, you'll like it,' she grabbed Dilandau by the wrist and dragged him along leaving Allen to stare after them perplexedly. Life had just become much more complicated.


	4. She Who Must be Obayed

Twin Moons

Chapter Three

Yes'm!

The servants had obediently set an extra place at the dining table at Celena's request. Within a month of Celena's arrival it had become apparent who was in charge at the Schezar manor. Allen was a doting elder brother and Celena, being stubborn as a mule, always got her way.

Allen still seemed lost in confusion, eyes darting nervously back to Dilandau every few seconds as Celena told him cheerfully about their recent adventure. She had changed into a powder blue dress with delicate silk trim and was looking the very picture of grace while Dilandau was still in the dull homespun he'd arrived in, having really nothing else.

Allen stared at Dilandau, morbidly fascinated by his behavior. He was twitchy, constantly looking around the room as though fearing some sort of attack. He never made eye contact with Allen, seeming as though he was pretending the knight wasn't there at all. He sat with flawless posture and ate like the most dignified of nobles, never touching the wrong fork or taking too large a bite. Allen wondered if Dilandau was trying to impress him or if he was feigning perfection out of defensiveness.

As a moment of silence stretched further into the region of awkwardness, Celena turned to Dilandau 'Dilandau, what did you think of Mateci?'

He pushed a beet around with a knife and shrugged at his plate, '...She talked a lot...'

Celena giggled, 'Yes she did, but she was awfully nice. You would have liked her, brother. She was perfectly dear. She was expecting us too! She had dinner all ready for the three of us. It's really amazing how much those witches know!' 

Allen nodded dumbly at her.

'There's an old lady at the bazaar who reads palms, I don't think she really knows what she's doing at all though. One time--'

'Celena?' Celena paused as her elder brother finally spoke.

'Yes, brother?' she replied sweetly.

'Um, actually both of you, um, see, um...' Celena smiled at him encouragingly, which more discouraged Allen from what he was about to say. 'Well, this, you being separate, it... presents a lot of complications... what with Dilandau being a rather prominent figure from our past enemy's armies and all... and... I don't honestly trust you... at all...' he glanced away from Dilandau who had finally looked up at him when addressed and took in Celena's most terrible look of annoyance mixed with disappointment in him. He cringed.

'Now, dear brother, that's just silly. The war's over and relations are being repaired nicely,' Celena stated matter-o-factly.

'Yes but that's because most of the notable persons from Zaibach were executed months ago,' Allen rubbed his hands over his face, he had known quite well that she would argue like this. He also had a sinking feeling that she would win like she always did when they argued.

Dilandau looked up at this comment with interest, 'Executed? Really? Who? Gein? What about the sorcerers? Did you catch any of them?'

'Huh?' Allen was slightly startled to finally hear Dilandau speak for the first time since he and Celena had arrived. 'Adalfus Gein, yes, he was one of the first executions. Daedalus found him and executed him without a trial.'

'Hm,' Dilandau smiled softly, 'Good. He was a bastard.'

Allen sputtered, 'Watch you language!'

'Well that's going to be a bit difficult. It's not really a visual sort of thing, now is it?' Dilandau smirked.

Allen glared at the frosty-haired young man, 'My little sister--'

'Has heard it all before,' Celena broke in, leaving Allen somewhat deflated. 'Now look that's not the point here. The point is that I won't see Dilandau hung or thrown in prison and that's that.'

'But, Celena, you can't just--'

'That's that,' Celena repeated decisively.

'Celena, it's really not up to you! We have to tell the king and--'

'Oh yes!' Celena clapped her hands, 'We'll all go see Dryden and Millerna, first thing in the morning!'

Allen sagged in defeat. Of course Dryden would side with Celena. That man was as illogical and unreasonable as she was. If it made no sense at all, Dryden would whole-heartedly approve.

'Celena, I'm not comfortable with him staying here,' Allen gave up a bit of ground but found new footing.

'Well I'm not comfortable with being here so I guess that makes us even,' Dilandau leaned back in his chair and looked Allen in the eye, obviously more at home with being disagreeable than he had been with dinner.

'No. It doesn't,' Allen glared back at him. 'Not at all.'

'Well I've been here for eight months and you never objected before,' Dilandau grinned as Allen fumbled for a retort.

Celena stood up and pressed her hands firmly against the table. 'Allen. Dilandau will be staying in the spare room that overlooks the garden tonight. We will go and see Dryden and Millerna in the morning. That's what's going to happen,' she said firmly.

'But--'

'No. That's all. There are no buts.'

'A--'

'No.'

'Can't--'

'No.'

'The--'

'No.'

Dilandau started to open his mouth and Celena whirled on him, 'No.'

'Hey! Y--'

'No.'

'You--'

'No.'

'I--'

'No.'

Allen and Dilandau glanced at each other, both realizing that this sort of argument was the very hardest kind to beat, and then back at her. She nodded to herself and sat down, returning to her meal.


	5. Sleepless Night

Twin Moons

Chapter Four

Sleepless Night

Dilandau gazed out over the darkened garden beyond the room. He had been quite pleased to discover that the room Celena put him in had a balcony and even more pleased by the gentle splashing sound of the fountain that filtered up through the thin trees near the outer walls of the house.

He was sitting on the balcony, his knees curled up to his chin, listening to the babbles of the fountain and looking at nothing in particular when he heard the door open. He jumped slightly and swiveled his neck to look back to see into the dark room. A shadowy figure padded across his floor towards him, softly as a cat. He relaxed as the form resolved itself into the shape of Celena and came out onto the balcony to join him.

Celena sat down, leaning against the railing next to him. 'It sure is quiet isn't it,' she sighed lightly.

'The night?' Dilandau looked up at her shadowed face.

'No,' Celena shook her head slowly, 'Being all alone in one's head.'

Dilandau nodded, looking back out at the fountain.

Celena shifted, looking him over slowly. Dilandau's eyes were unfocussed and cloudy; a soft, bitter, numbness replaced the spark that she was sure should have been there. Somewhere far back in those eyes she could see a cold, sad kind of hate, not the passionate kind that he had so often been filled with in the past, but a dull, aching self loathing that almost made her cry to see. His shoulders were drawn in as he hugged his legs close to himself, pushing his toes down to rock slowly back and fourth.

He looked so small and lonely that Celena moved closer to him and draped her arms around his shoulders. 'The silence was just so deafening... that sounds very silly, doesn't it?... I thought you'd still be awake too. It's just so odd not to have you there to talk to...'

'Do you regret it?'

'What?'

'Being split apart like this... do you wish we hadn't been?'

Celena thought a moment, 'No... not really. It will take some getting used to, but it's really better this way. We can both have real lives now. It's hard right now, but once we get our footing we'll be much better off.'

Dilandau sighed, 'You will, but I expect I'll rot in jail for the rest of my life; which I don't expect to be very long anyway.'

Celena frowned, 'Don't talk like that. I won't let them lock you up. And you're not going to just die either.'

Dilandau closed his eyes and rocked, 'I can't hide behind you any more. I wish I could. I wish I could still hide and pretend I didn't exist at all.'

Celena sat back and crossed her arms looking very disapproving, 'Dilandau, are you listening to yourself? What would the you of eight months ago say if he heard you talking like this? I tell you, he'd slap you and call you a coward!'

He laughed bitterly, hugging his knees closer, 'Of course he would. I was delusional then. Under the delusion that I _wasn't_ hiding every chance I got.'

'That's not true,' Celena looked at him quite seriously. 'I know you were very brave sometimes. I saw you stand up to superior officers on several occasions. Just that you managed to survive all that horror... you're the bravest person I know.'

Dilandau glanced sadly at her, 'I only survived because people kept throwing their own lives away for my sorry hide.'

'Because they loved you. Because they could all see how wonderful you were. They all loved you enough to sacrifice themselves for your sake,' Celena laid a hand on his shoulder.

He gazed down at her hand for a moment before turning back toward the fountain. 'I wasn't wonderful. Farthest thing from it,' He buried his face in his knees.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Allen slipped back into his room and closed the door as soundlessly as possible. Unable to sleep due to Dilandau's presence, he had gone out to watch the fireflies in the garden and pressed himself back into the shadows when he saw Dilandau wander out on to the balcony bellow and somewhat to the right of his.

He sat on his bed and thought for a long time. He no longer felt that Dilandau was a threat, though he still couldn't sleep. He was very disturbed by the realization that he found himself pitying the boy. He was beginning to realize that there was far more to Dilandau than the killing machine he had seen on the battlefield.


	6. Temporary Solution

Twin Moons

Chapter Five

A Temporary Solution

'Allen,' Erise glided across the marble tiled floor, wafts of light green fabric trailing behind her. She nodded toward the assembled servants to dismiss them. 'To what do we owe this visit?'

'Not a social call, I'm afraid, Princess. I need to speak with the king and queen as soon as possible. It's... a bit urgent,' Allen glanced behind him towards Dilandau who was gazing around at the architecture of the main hall.

Erise followed Allen's gaze and then looked to where Celena was politely smiling back at her. 'So I see,' she turned gesturing for them to follow. 'They're in a meeting right now but I'll see what I can do.'

She guided them through several extravagant halls chatting politely, as they went, about the state of shipping and the recent oddity in weather. After a few minutes of confusing staircases and three different rug colors, she stopped and opened a dark wooden door.

'Please wait in here while I inform the royal couple of your business,' Erise said, waving them into the room and then closing it briskly behind them and starting back down the hall.

Celena pulled a ball of string and hook from her purse and set to work crocheting as Allen and Dilandau wandered nervously about the little study. She hummed lightly to herself and tugged her stitches tight. She watched Allen fidget with a pen from the desk and Dilandau examine the loudly ticking clock on the wall near the door. She sighed and unraveled her ball a little more as Dilandau toyed with a tassel on the deep orange curtains across the desk from her and Allen noticed a scuff on his boot. She pulled apart a few stitches realizing she'd dropped one as Allen looked out the window at a small canal and Dilandau leaned against a wall, tapping his foot. After three and a half rows of stitching, the door opened.

'Sorry to keep you waiting, Allen. I understand we have a bit of a problem?' Dryden sauntered into the room followed by his wife Millerna and sister-in-law Erise.

Dilandau sat down next to Celena and did his best to look uninterested.

'Not at all, Dryden, I'm glad you could see us at all,' Allen pulled a chair from beside the door and sat down across the mahogany desk from Dryden and Millerna. Erise stood stiffly near them, watching like a hawk, as par her usual.

'So,' Dryden put his elbows down on the desktop and folded his hands under his chin, 'How did this happen?'

Celena put away her crocheting and smiled at Dryden, 'A witchi fixed us up.'

'Oh?' Dryden's eyes gleamed with curiosity.

'Yes,' Celena sat more upright in her chair, 'her name is Mateci and she lives near Kalaster Village and she's an excellent cook.'

Dryden grinned and nodded, 'I think I've heard of her. So, now I suppose the question is what to do.'

'It is indeed,' Celena smiled back. 'I won't have you locking Dilandau up either.'

'Celena...' Allen gave her a warning look but Dryden only laughed.

'Now, Allen, she obviously has good reason to feel this way,' Dryden turned back to Celena, 'Celena, have you been conscious of Dilandau's presence in you mind the past eight months?'

'Oh yes. We could talk to one and other. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was thinking what,' Celena folded her hands.

Dryden nodded, 'So you would say that you know him better than anybody alive?'

'Yes, I would say that I do.'

Dryden nodded again, 'And do you think he presents any threat to this country?' 

Celena thought a moment and Dilandau looked up at Dryden and tilted his head to the side.

'No, I don't believe he does,' Celena looked challengingly back at the king.

'All right,' Dryden sat back in his chair, 'I believe you completely, though I don't believe I want to just let him wander off. Even if he presents no threat to Astoria, Astoria more than likely presents a threat to him.'

'What do you mean?' Dilandau asked, now too intrigued by this strange person to maintain his sullen silence.

'Oh, you know, people finding out your not dead and assembling angry mobs to beat you to death, that sort of thing. There are still some pretty bad feelings over the war you know. I'd also like to keep an eye on you for a while though, I'm sorry if that seems a bit rude,' Dryden smiled apologetically.

'Dryden, are you sure this is prudent?' Erise spoke in a voice that made it quite clear that she did not think it.

'Oh Erise!' Dryden grimaced at her, 'No one's even proposed an idea yet! At lease let me plan a course of action before you shoot it down.'

Erise frowned.

'We could keep him here a while I suppose...' Millerna said doubtfully.

'He can stay at my house,' Allen sighed, knowing this was exactly what Dryden intended him to say. Dilandau stared at him disbelievingly. There had to be a plot afoot.

'Perfect!' Dryden clapped his hands and smiled up at Erise's disapproving frown.

'This is, of course, only a temporary solution?' Erise questioned firmly.

'Of course. We shall meet again in, say, a month to discuss the matter further,' Dryden smiled round the room, 'Does that suit everyone?'

'Yes, thank you, Dryden. That will do nicely,' Celena returned the smile as other persons in the room nodded or made no response.

'Right then. It's been a pleasure but we must get back to discussing the state of the wharf and the most efficient way to rebuild the collapsing docks,' Dryden grimaced.

'Sounds interesting,' Celena giggled, rising from her seat.

'Oh, _very_,' Dryden wrinkled his nose.

The royal couple escorted them partway out of the palace. Down two colors of rugs. Millerna walked beside Celena as they went.

'Celena, if you would like to come and stay a few days at the palace, I'd very much enjoy your company. I don't get to talk to people my own age very often now,' Millerna smiled cheerfully.

Celena was terribly flattered, 'Why I'd love to, Millerna! When would you like me to come?'

Millerna smiled gleefully, 'Oh, any time you'd like to really. We don't have any much business this weekend but... if you'd like to wait a while I'd understand completely.'

'No, no, this weekend's fine! I don't have any plans. I'd love to visit! We could have lots of fun!' Celena said excitedly.

Hearing this, Allen clenched his teeth. Did Celena really intend to leave him alone with Dilandau for the whole weekend?

Dilandau bit the inside of his cheek. Did Celena really intend to leave him alone for the whole weekend?


	7. Tea with Erise

Twin Moons

Chapter Six

Tea with Erise

'What are they doing out there?' Erise gazed out over the lawn at the two figures sitting in the grass.

'Playing cards,' Allen shrugged. He swished the tea in his cup around, watching the leaves dance across the bottom.

'Celena plays card?' Erise looked vaguely horrified, 'That's not very ladylike.'

Allen chuckled and looked up to where Celena and Dilandau sat, playing cards in on the sun-warmed grass. 'Yes, I suppose next she'll be running off to bars and gambling late into the night,' Allen mused jokingly. 'She and I often played cards as children.'

Erise frowned. 'I'm serious, Allen. That boy is going to be a bad influence on her. He shouldn't be let to wander around like this. He's a criminal.'

'I think,' Allen said softly but firmly, 'That he's had the last eight months, if not decade, to be a bad influence on her. Either way, Dryden's made a decision.'

'You didn't have to offer your house. If you hadn't, there'd be no option but to put him under lock and key at the palace,' Erise looked back at Allen with a mix of irritation and concern on her face.

'You know Dryden wanted me to. I don't think he's going to be trouble.'

Erise looked shocked, 'What on Gaea makes you say that?'

Allen thought for a long minute, watching Celena throw her arms up in the air and then her hand of cards at Dilandau, a thin sound of her laughing exclamation reaching his ears. He turned back to Erise and looked into her stern eyes, 'I don't know. Just a gut feeling.'

Erise sniffed but didn't argue. Allen was gazing out to where Dilandau was again shuffling the cards and Celena rolling on her back, laughing. The soft happiness in his eyes had not diminished since the arrival of Celena's vile counter-part in the least. Celena seemed to be her cheeriest and so Allen was happy. Since Celena had returned, the beautiful, tender joy in Allen's eyes had become more pronounced every time Erise had seen him. It had become harder and harder for Erise to say anything that would hurt those eyes.

Erise bit her lip hard and pushed such thoughts out of her mind. This was no time to be day dreaming. She swallowed against the slight lump in her throat and asked a question she knew would bring him down, 'What did Van say?'

'Wants to have Dilandau shipped over to Fanelia for execution. Thinks it would raise the countries moral,' Allen said sullenly.

'It would do that,' Erise bit her lip. 'What are you going to tell him?'

'I already sent another letter,' Allen sighed. 'Very polite. Maybe too much so, didn't read at all like friend to friend. I don't think he'd do anything stupid. He's got a country to look after and he's a good king.'

Erise nodded, 'Hate can do strange things to a person, though.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau dealt out the cards again, listening to Celena hum softly as she chained some of the small blue flowers that dotted the lawn. She draped the string around her neck and picked up her hand, organizing it into a neat linear pattern.

'I can't believe your leaving me alone here all weekend,' Dilandau said with a somewhat bitter tone.

'Don't be silly! Of course I'm not leaving you alone, Allen will be here,' Celena smiled brightly, tipping her head so that the sun shined brightly off her honey colored hair.

Dilandau grimaced, 'That's even worse!'

Celena giggled at the expression on his face, 'It's only two days anyway. I think you'll survive it.'

He snorted and pulled a card from the top of the stack, 'Nothing. Go.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celena was picked up by a carriage in the early afternoon of Friday. Dilandau sat on the porch steps and watched it pull away as Schezar, who had carried her trunk down to the drive waved her off from there.

Dilandau didn't give Schezar a glance as he walked past into the house. He found himself spending most of the day loitering about the garden or sitting in his room. 


	8. Broken Machine

Twin Moons

Chapter Seven

A Broken Machine

Allen felt by far more awkward at dinner that night than he had when Dilandau first arrived. Silence, but for the clinking of silver, wrapped the room like a thick blanket.

'What do you think you'll do with yourself now?' Allen daringly broke the silence, 'With your life?'

'Resent it, waste it, end it, oh the choices,' Dilandau sang low and morbidly.

Allen stared at him with some shock. When Dilandau said nothing else for quite a few minutes, Allen again hazarded an attempt at conversation but this time with far more earnestly.

'When I was eleven, my father died and Celena was kidnapped within a month of each other. My mother wasted away quite quickly, she died the following month leaving me orphaned and alone,' Allen sat back in his chair. 'I didn't care what happened after that. I wandered around looking for trouble, wanting to die but unable to do it myself. If I hadn't met Vargus, I expect I would be dead. Since that time I have often felt despair, but it does get easier to go on. You just have to find a purpose and learn how to live all over again.'

Dilandau glared across the table at Allen, looking murderous. 'So that's what this is, why I'm here' he hissed angrily. 'You think you know me. You want to act the hero like you always do. You don't know anything.' Dilandau stood and slammed his palms against the table, 'I'm not even a real _person!_ I'm just a _weapon!_

You think you're going to _fix_ me? There's _nothing_ to _fix _I never _was_ anything but what they _wanted_ me to be! I worked like I was _supposed_ to when they were cramming me full of _pills_ but now I'm just a _broken machine!_ '

'You're not a machine. Machines don't do this. Machines don't have tantrums, machines don't feel despair; they don't feel anything. You do, you have a mind.'

Dilandau's eyes suddenly got wider, he stared at Allen for a moment, memories swimming through his brain. 'Shut up,' he said somewhat hoarsely and then louder, yelling, he snapped out of reverie, 'SHUT UP! Don't you ever say that! Don't you ever...' he stared at Allen looking horrified for a moment and then bolted out of the room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'You can't read? Why not?' the Stratagos demanded.

Dilandau shrugged, unashamed. 'What reason does Gein's pet killing machine have for reading?' he asked with a bitter tone in his voice.

'You're not a machine,' Folken said in a low, dangerous voice. Education had become considerably lax in recent years and that was only the start of problems. He had a suspicion that the sorcerers didn't want Dilandau reading, only wanted him to know what they approved of. 'You have a mind,' he said firmly.

Dilandau looked up at him with interest, sure that the Stratagos was about to do something quite interesting. He was not disappointed when Folken turned the paper in his hands around and started explaining the alphabet and how it translated into words.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau sat curled on the floor of the room he was staying in. He rocked slightly, letting the memory wash over him. He felt a new wave of depression hit him. Even the ability to read had made no difference. He'd still become the weapon the sorcerers had wanted him to be. He'd still leveled countries and killed countless hapless bystanders, just like they wanted him to.

Dilandau felt as sick as he had ever felt. He wanted it all to go away, or maybe... for himself to go away... disappear... die...

He stood slowly and looked around the room. There were several glass things, from picture frames to bud vases. He stepped towards the desk; it had two drawers in it. He opened the first and spotted a dipping pen, sharp and clean.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Allen wondered at the sudden shock in Dilandau's eyes when he'd said he had a mind. He paused for a moment outside Dilandau's door. He didn't hear the sounds of things breaking or any other tantrumish noise. For some reason that worried him far more than the prospect of Dilandau raging at him.

He pushed open the door and stood still. The lamps in the room were unlit and he couldn't see much but shadows after the brightness of the hall. But he heard the soft sound of sobs just ahead of him and stepped forward as his eyes adjusted.

Dilandau was sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding his left wrist in the right hand. It was a moment before Allen registered the patches of blood staining the shirt Celena had found for him from Allen's old clothes.

'What did you do?' He demanded dropping down in front of Dilandau and staring.

'Go away,' Dilandau whispered.

Allen found a red smeared pen on the floor and stared at it, aghast. 'Why did you do that?'

'Go away,' Dilandau sobbed looking angrily up at him.

'No. I'm not letting you bleed to death. Get up.'

Dilandau sobbed again, 'I'm not going to. I'm too much of a coward, I barely scratched myself.'

Allen marveled at how pathetic the former terror of the world looked, sobbing on the floor. He stood up and made to pull Dilandau up, saying 'Come on. That should be cleaned.'

'NO!' Dilandau screamed, 'LEAVE ME ALONE!'

Allen found his patients waning. He grabbed Dilandau's arm and dragged him to his feet, receiving a sharp kick in the shin. 'Don't be _stupid!_' he shouted, 'It'll only get infected!'

'I DON'T CARE! GO AWAY!' Dilandau screamed hysterically back.

Allen glared. Dilandau glared back. Allen bodily dragged Dilandau out of the room, through two rather long hallways, down the stairs and into the study where he threw him into a chair as Dilandau screamed and wailed kicked him. His cries attracted most of the serving staff and Allen sent them running for bandages and such.

Dilandau had taken to swearing ferociously at him as Allen turned back towards him. Allen listened to Dilandau spew off expletives for a few minutes before slapping him hard across the face.

Dilandau went silent with shock and stared dumbly up at Allen who loomed menacingly over him. 'Shut up. You're acting like a child. A child with a rather large vocabulary, I'll grant you, but still a child.'

Dilandau continued to stare silently at him, clutching his messy wrist.

'If you had killed yourself, that would have been cowardess. You would have been taking the easy way out,' Allen turned away from him.

'You're wrong,' Dilandau said softly. 'Cowardess is the reason I'm alive. It's the reason I survived the war. I was afraid to die, so I watched everyone around me die and was too scared to do a thing to stop it.'

A pudgy maid bustled in with a pitcher of water and scraps of linen cradled in her arms. She set them down next to the chair, going down to her knees, and pried Dilandau's hands apart. 'Calm down, now,' she said comfortingly. 'What on Gaea were you doing here?'

'Trying to cut my wrists,' Dilandau answered casually.

'Well that's a daft thing to do,' the maid dipped a piece of cloth in the pitcher and scrubbed gently at the rapidly congealing blood on Dilandau's arm. 'Your fingers too I see,' she said conversationally.

'The pen slipped,' Dilandau shrugged.

'A pen,' the maid shook her head reprovingly, 'That's why this is such a nasty cut then. Dull and ragged. It'll leave a dreadful scar.'

Dilandau shrugged.

'Ungrateful little mongrel, aren't you?' the maid looked up to meet his eye.

'What should I be grateful for? That I have to live in this hell another day?'

The maid scrubbed harder at Dilandau's wrist making him wince, 'How about a roof and bread then? Does that suit your fancy? You could be out in the cold, you know. If you ask me, Master Allen is far too kind for his own good.'

'Or a show-off hero,' Dilandau said lazily.

'Why you cheeky, little brat!' the maid glared at him and then glanced toward where Allen was leaning against a wall, watching.

Dilandau gazed placidly at the ceiling and didn't make any more acknowledgment of the world around him as the maid continued to chatter and roughly wrapped his hand in linen.


	9. Morning Rainbows

Twin Moons

Chapter Eight

Morning Rainbows

Dilandau felt weightless. Completely comfortable, not too hot or too cold, unaware of any of the usual physical sensations. For a moment, he almost believed he was sleeping in the back of Celena's mind again, nothing more than an occasional voice in her head.

As he began to drift closer to waking, he felt the heaviness of his body in the entirely too soft Astorian bed and the press of the pillow against his face. He hung in that state of being aware of his being asleep but having no motivation to wake for what seemed like a long time. He could twitch a few of his fingers, but that was the only motion he made.

The sun must have changed angle slightly because the covers soon became too warm, forcing him out of the comfortable half-sleep. He sat up and opened his eyes very slowly. Birds were making a loud racket of singing outside and the sun was pushing its way through the thin, lemony curtains over the glass doors to his right.

Yawning, Dilandau slid out of the bed and dressed himself, neglecting to don shoes, and stepped out onto the balcony. The day was clear and beautiful. The last of the morning mist was burning off under the warm, late spring sun and the small animals of the fields were flying or scurrying about hungrily collecting bugs, seeds, and each other.

Dilandau swung his legs over the railing and sat, swinging his feet very slightly, watching and listening to the morning fade into day. His height from the ground did not bother him, he was perfectly confident of his balance. He had sat like this from catwalks on the Vione often enough, and if those heights didn't bother him, a mere story certainly wouldn't.

He closed his eyes and slowly inhaled the cool, sweetly scented air. He had always liked balconies. On the Vione, he would spend much of his free time, when he was not sleeping, gazing out over a small, out of the way balcony on the hanger level. Looking down at the lands and seas below, all his problems had seemed almost as far away as they had.

Dilandau opened his eyes and felt his stomach tighten, the ground looked very close here to him and the light, cool feeling of early morning was beginning to ebb away.

He sighed and brought his feet back to the floor, put them into boots and drifted out of the room. Downstairs, sun came brightly through the high windows of the entry hall and dining room. Schezar was already there just about to start eating. He offered Dilandau a polite, but tired, smile.

Dilandau ignored him, sitting down at his own place and weaving his feet through the rungs of his chair. He ate his breakfast slowly, trying not to hear Schezar talking cheerfully about some stupid thing or other and paid attention instead to cutting sausages and pushing things around his plate. When he finished eating, he gazed around the room, some of the lightness had returned in the bright, rainbow colored light of the dining room.

He looked up and found the chandelier from which the rainbows were coming. It was dripping all over with shiny cut glass and barely seemed to have anything holding it together.

In the middle of the wall behind him, hung a painting of a very tall and thin blonde woman. Her face was thin and her features sharp. She had an odd, almost impossible kind of beauty to her. The paining was very well done and she almost seemed to be looking back at him with her dark, expressive eyes.

'That's you're mother?' Dilandau gestured to the painting.

Allen paused his polite monologue, surprised but pleased with this safe sounding topic of conversation. 'Yes,' he said pleasantly.

Dilandau nodded, still looking at the painting, 'She looks like you.'

Allen smiled, 'Yes, I've been told that quite a bit. Celena takes more after our father about the face but we both have our mother's hair and eyes.

Dilandau looked back at Allen, nodding again, 'What was her name? And your father's?'

'Encia Bevarrel before she was married,' Allen said, putting up his napkin and sitting back comfortably in his chair. 'And she married Leon Schezar.'

'How did he die?' Dilandau asked curiously.

Allen gazed into space for a moment, thinking it over and then answered calmly, as though it was something very far from him and he had only studied it once. 'He went searching for Atlantis, and he found it. Zaibach killed him because he wouldn't betray its secret to them.'

Dilandau chewed on his lip, processing that and looked at the table.

'You should eat more, you know.'

Dilandau looked up, surprised, 'What?'

'I've noticed you really don't eat much. That's not healthy,' Allen said placidly.

'Neither is insanity,' Dilandau shrugged.

'You're not insane,' Allen said coolly, watching Dilandau's face shift to a startled, curious expression. 'You were, I have no doubt, but they probably did that to you. You seem shell-shocked now, but you're perfectly functional.'

Dilandau snorted, 'And what's that mean, "functional"? I can feed and dress myself?'

Allen shook his head, 'I don't know. But I've known insane people. You're not.'

Dilandau looked at him expressionlessly.

'You know, you're eyes are different now,' Allen returned his stare, equally expressionless. 'I only looked you in the eye once before, but it was not the sort of thing one forgets easily. It was chilling. Just, mad, I don't know how else to describe it.'

They looked at each other for a long time, not speaking; then Dilandau looked down at his nearly cold breakfast and ate the rest of it, even taking a second helping of eggs.


	10. Yet More Dinnertime Conversation

Twin Moons

Chapter Nine

Yet More Dinnertime Conversation

Dilandau found himself wandering aimlessly again. Today he wandered inside; it was cooler there, which was much appreciated as the day looked to become the hottest yet of the year. He wandered the halls examining paintings he found and wondering what was behind doors. After a while he found a door that struck him as familiar.

He tilted his head to the side, he had the feeling he'd been through that door, but he couldn't quite remember when. He reached for the handle and then paused, he couldn't just open a _closed_* door. Some part of his mind, though, was assuring him that it was a very public room and no one would mind him being in it. Why would he know that? He bit his lip and opened it.

*)that does tend to be the kind of door that needs opening...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Allen leaned his head on a fist and gazed down at the paperwork on the desk in front of him. Paperwork was one of the worst parts of being a knight. It was particularly hard to concentrate with the birdsong outside the large windows of the study. His mind was drifting far from whatever was written on the papers ahead of him. What to do, what to do...

He looked up at the sound of the door opening. Dilandau stood there looking round the room with great interest. Allen turned in his seat and smiled cheerfully, 'Need something?'

'No,' Dilandau shook his head.

Allen watched him for a moment and then asked, 'Looking for a book?' that was it, Allen smiled to himself proudly. He waved his hand at the bookshelves covering the walls of the room, 'Go ahead. Feel free to come get a book whenever you like.'

In an instant Dilandau was eagerly looking through the rows of books. Allen smiled again and turned back to his paperwork. It seemed much easier to get through now.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dinner came again and with it a quiet much less uncomfortable than the previous night's. Allen watched Dilandau gazing thoughtfully into space for a moment before again trying to strike up conversation, 'So you like reading, what genre's your favorite?'

'I don't know,' Dilandau shrugged, 'I haven't read much. I wasn't supposed to know how.'

Allen looked at him confusedly, 'No supposed to know how? What do you mean?'

Dilandau paused and gazed into space again, 'I guess the Sorcerers didn't want me to read so I didn't know how.'

'Why wouldn't they want you to read?' Allen asked looking ever more confused.

Dilandau looked back at him placidly, 'I don't know. I suppose they were trying to control the information I got. Better to control how I thought, I'd imagine...' he paused and his expression went darker, 'Though the obscene quantities of pills I was on did a pretty efficient job of that.'

Allen raised his eyebrows, 'Pills?'

Dilandau tilted his head, a surprised look on his face, 'Well yeah. As I am now, do you really think I'd be at all useful for leaving a wake of destruction through any countries the empire didn't like?'

Allen stared at him for a while, 'Did you ever try just stopping?'

'The drugs?' Dilandau nodded darkly, 'A few times. Got deadly ill and when I'd recovered, there were a few more pills added to the usual ones. Gave up after a while.'

'...You were a puppet,' Allen had completely forgotten his food now.

Dilandau nodded again and went back to looking at his own plate, 'Not just to them... I didn't have any power really, in the army. I wasn't supposed to, I was just there to act the good leader... I'd get ordered to level a city, I'd level it, make myself sick for a few days and get ordered to level another,' he shivered, glaring at his plate. 'Fkers. Especially Gein... Fker...'

Allen frowned at the explicit language but didn't say anything about it. He was just opening his mouth to speak when Dilandau, eyes starting to shine with tears, punched the table and half shouted, 'That bastard actually had the nerve, and I'm sure now that it was just to piss-off Folken, to order that nothing was supposed to leave Fanelia alive!'

Allen's jaw dropped slightly and it took him a minute to form the reeling thoughts in his head into speech. 'Lots of people escaped Fanelia. Most of them. The city was destroyed, but the casualties were unusually low considering...'

Dilandau nodded sitting back in his chair, looking somewhat lost, 'Good.' He chuckled to himself, 'I ordered my Slayers to allow time for the populous to escape and just concentrate on drawing out Escaflowne and capturing it...' Dilandau shivered again, 'Gein was really pissed off about that one...'

Allen found it even harder to form words from the whirling thoughts in his mind and stared wonderingly at Dilandau for a long time. Dilandau didn't look up, still busy glaring at his plate. 'What'd he do?' Allen asked, still trying to cope with the sudden flow of impossible information.

Dilandau sat back in his chair and gazed coolly at Allen, 'four broken ribs, two fingers and quite a number of cuts and burns. He was pretty angry.'

Allen was horrified, so horrified that the only speech he could manage seemed, once he'd said it to be terribly stupid and cold, 'And you piloted a guymelef in that condition?'

Dilandau grinned bitterly, 'Broken ribs really aren't very inconvenient, just painful, and the broken fingers were in my left hand, I know how to fight one handed. I've had worse.'

Allen just stared, vague horror painted across his face as Dilandau finished eating.


	11. Bazaar Circumstances

Twin Moons

Chapter Ten

Bazaar Circumstances

The sun was still gliding its way across the wood paneled floor when Dilandau awoke on Sunday. He watched it creep along for a few minutes before disentangling himself from the fluffy Astorian bedding and pulling on a plain white shirt with brown pants. He grimaced in the mirror slightly; he'd never looked very good in light colors.

Little creatures were noisily going about their usual morning activities as he leaned on the balcony to watch them. Several birds were jumping merrily in and out of the fountain and others were rolling in dry patches of dirt. Some of them were pecking at trees and ground looking for little invertebrates to munch on and others were chasing one and other.

Dilandau smiled, Astoria really was a beautiful country. There weren't many trees or plants in Zaibach outside of the small gardens around the houses of the upper crust and so there were very few little creatures either aside from rats. An overfed rat rummaging through garbage didn't compare in the lease to a fat little chickadee bouncing round a fountain.

After a few minutes admiring the carefully manicured nature, he drifted back down to the dining room. Allen was just coming in too and breakfast was a calm and pleasant affair. Conversation was light and the rainbows were back spattering the walls. Allen announced that they would go to the bazaar and get Dilandau his own clothes.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The bazaar was noisy and smelly and thoroughly fascinating. Merchants were shouting over the din of conversation and street noise about their wares. Fish mongers shouted about their freshest catches and jewelers haggled with customers, insisting that their gems had come from the farthest corners of Gaea. Dilandau stared around in rapt bemusement; _battle_ wasn't this chaotic!

'Why is he doing that?' Dilandau demanded pointing at a street performer who was carefully dropping a sword down his throat.

Allen looked and shrugged, 'For tips. It's a performance. See, people put money in his hat there.'

Dilandau followed close to Allen, marveling at all the odd sights of the bazaar. Other street performers seemed to be doing even more terrible things to themselves but the passerbys just cheered and dropped coins into hats cups and instrument cases. Allen watched his reactions curiously, 'There was nothing like this in Zaibach?'

'I don't know,' Dilandau said watching a merchant trying to sell a necklace to a touring noble woman, 'I never went off base.'

'Really? Never?' Allen asked as he turned and started working his way through the crowd to a clothing store across the street. Dilandau shook his head and followed, glancing back at a man who was playing a stringed instrument and wailing horribly to the tune.

Inside the shop it was much quieter, though the noise of the street still filtered through the open windows in the front. A young woman wearing the latest in Egzardian fashion looked up from the counter as the door opened with a jingle. She smiled cheerfully and came round to meet Allen and Dilandau in the middle of the room. A few other customers were looking through the clothes hung along walls and racks and one was examining the bolts of fine fabric standing on the right-hand wall of the room.

'Can I help you with anything?' she asked pleasantly, 'Would you like to place any special orders?'

Dilandau wandered around the store on his own and the clerk sat back down at the front, humming and tapping her fingers on the counter. Dilandau searched through clothes excitedly, he'd never been able to choose for himself what he wore before, and scanned all the latest fashions and very plain, functional attire.

He decided quickly holding up various colors and consulting the many mirrors positioned around the room, that the colors he'd worn in Zaibach definitely fit him best. He paused in his search for less puffy, frilly cuts to wonder if that was intentional. He supposed that the sorcerers, or somebody, would have wanted him to look terribly impressive. He let this idea go without much thought, it didn't bother him much, and went on.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau wandered round staring in excited wonder at the many curious things laying on tables and hanging from strung lines and poles. Being that it was the weekend, there were quite a number of street performers out doing all kinds of odd and crazy things. There was a puppet theatre along a wall around which many children shrieked with glee at the violent little animated dolls. Dilandau watched them for a moment before moving on down the street.

He was passing by the narrow alley between two storefronts when a hand reached out, caught his arm and dragged him down it. He cursed himself for being so distracted by the bazaar's lively atmosphere as he fell backwards against the dirty cobbles within.

There were three thieves looming over him now and Dilandau was surprised by how untheifly they looked. They were dressed quite well and ordinarily; one looked very much like a fishmonger and another wore the garb of an Astorian soldier. The soldier's sword was currently pointed at Dilandau's throat.

'I don't _have_ any money,' Dilandau said coldly. 'The most valuable thing on me is probably my boots, which are starting to ware a bit thin in the soles.'

The three men glared at him. 'Do we look like thieves?' the soldier asked angrily.

'No,' Dilandau said honestly, 'but I can't think what else you'd be, assaulting random people on the street.'

'This was by no means random,' the fish monger assured him, brandishing a large rectangular knife. 'We know who you are. You're rather easy to spot, aren't you.'

Dilandau glared back at him, suddenly feeling very cold, 'And who am I?'

All three men grinned contemptuous, feral grins. 'Dilandau Albatuo,' the soldier said quietly. 'A lot of my friends died at your hands.'

The third man finally spoke, 'My cousin's whole family died when you attacked the harbor.'

'Your hands are stained with Astoria's blood,' the fish monger rumbled, 'I think it's time you gave her back some of yours.'

Dilandau felt icy. He couldn't speak or even breathe. His mind was screaming at him to do something, but a little voice somewhere in the back was asking if it would really be all that bad. He inhaled slowly, watching the vicious, thirsty look in his assailants' eyes and finally managed a few words, 'You're probably right.'

The soldier's blade wavered slightly away from Dilandau's throat in his shock. The other two men were staring with equal surprise for a moment before the fish monger was knocked roughly to the side and the soldier yanked backwards.

Dilandau sat up, blinking with astonishment. Allen was standing in the middle of the alley with his sword pressed against the soldier's throat. The soldier dropped his own sword, which clattered, noisily against the ground.

'Drop it!' Allen shouted at the fishmonger who had started advancing on him with his chopping knife. The fishmonger jumped and obediently dropped it.

'A-Allen Schezar,' the third man stammered angrily, 'You dare to harbor this criminal in Astoria! You are a traitor to your country and everyone knows it!'

Allen raised an eyebrow at the man. 'Gossip spreads faster than wildfire,' Dilandau chirped cheerily. Allen looked down at him surprisedly. Dilandau was looking back up at him and smiling. Quite genuinely, Allen realized with interest.

'But never fully,' Allen chuckled. 'Have you gentlemen also heard that Dilandau was given asylum by the king? Do you question his majesty's judgement?'

All three men looked shocked and horrified. 'Asylum? To that?' demanded the fishmonger. Allen threw the soldier away and told them all to go home. They decided not to push their luck by talking back to a knight and hurried off.

'You wandered off,' Allen then leant down and offered Dilandau a hand up, which he surprisingly excepted.

'Sorry, wasn't paying attention,' Dilandau said as he got to his feet.


	12. Bitter Allies

Twin Moons

Chapter Eleven

Bitter Allies

Celena brought the princesses back to the Schezar manor for tea that afternoon. She liberally gave out hugs when she arrived and chattered excitedly about her weekend. Erise quietly drank her tea and Millerna added in as Celena chattered. She finished by talking about the funny thing Dryden had said the other day and the bird that kept hopping on her windowsill in the morning.

'And what did you do all weekend?' she asked merrily. 

'We went to the bazaar today,' Allen said coolly, noting the look of concern and disapproval that crossed Erise's face as he said it.

'It was neat,' Dilandau examined a sweet biscuit. 'Then I got attacked.'

'What?' Millerna choked.

'Three pretty average looking guys,' Dilandau shrugged looking up at her. 'Apparently word about me has spread rather quickly.'

'It has indeed,' Erise said, setting her cup back into its saucer and looking very seriously at Allen. 'Basram, Daedalus and Cesario have already sent word of their disapproval and I know King Fanel is having a fit.'

Millerna looked down at her lap unhappily and Celena balled her skirt in her hands looking very angry. Allen sighed rubbing his hands over his face and Erise sipped her tea in an I-told-you-so sort of way.

Dilandau sighed and chewed his lip for a moment before speaking. 'Then you really should just lock me up,' he said in a calm, mater-of-fact way. Everyone stared at him, shocked. 'It's the most sound decision, politically speaking, and it'll just be trouble if you don't,' he reasoned, taking another biscuit.

'You're saying' Erise gazed at him appraisingly, 'that you want to go to prison?'

'I'm saying' Dilandau corrected her, 'that as the rulers of this country you have the responsibility of keeping it safe and to do that you need to have good foreign relations. It would be very hazardous to upset your allies. That's how wars get started in the first place and the aftermath of a particularly destructive one has proven, throughout history, to be the best time for a new one to fester.'

Allen, Millerna and Celena continued to stare at him, shocked and disbelieving. Erise refilled her teacup and took a long drink of it, her eyes still resting curiously on Dilandau. She swallowed and gazed at him for a moment more before responding. 'You are absolutely right, of course,' she said smoothly, ignoring the aghast looks from the other three. 'You seem to have a good understanding of diplomacy,' she was intrigued by the way even such a grim compliment seemed to please him. She felt sure suddenly, and she wasn't entirely sure why, that he'd received very few before.

'Even so,' Millerna protested, very upset that her conscience and practicality were pulling her in opposite directions, 'we couldn't possibly do that without a trial.'

'Then give me a trial,' he shrugged returning to his tea.

'It's not so simple as that,' Erise shook her head, sinking back into her chair slightly. For the first time she found herself not wanting to shut away the boy and never think about him again. 'Suppose you were found innocent of your actions during the war. It was war, after all, and if that did happen, we would be on the same ground with our neighbors as we are now. They would accuse us of rigging the trial.'

Dilandau snorted, he knew that could never happen. 'Then rig it the other way. Or better yet, have them send representatives so they can see to it themselves that I don't win.'

Erise's eyebrow raised again. Was it as simple as that? In all her dealings with government, Erise had rarely found a simple solution to a problem. Perhaps in this case, there was one. Erise thought that she herself would likely have taken hours to settle herself on that solution. She nodded slowly and sipped her tea. 'An interesting notion.'

'No!' Millerna protested, 'We can't rig a trial! It would be a mockery of the justice system!'

'Of course we wouldn't rig the trial,' Erise scowled at her. 'I was referring to his second suggestion. Dilandau is a prominent enough figure from the war to merit such a gathering. We could have representatives come. What are your thoughts Allen?'

Allen looked up at her from his brooding. It did make wonderful sense politically, and after what he'd heard Dilandau say last night, he realized that he was sure Dilandau _could_ win. The question was, _would_ he? Would he _bother_? Allen nodded slowly to Erise, 'It does strike me as the best solution.' To his right, Celena nodded as well.

Both Erise's eyebrows raised. She had never thought Celena would agree to this. Celena had been the most vehement about Dilandau being free. Did she think he could win? Erise suppressed a curious smile. There was certainly more to the boy than met the eye.

Millerna was looking between all of them with great distress. She had no idea what was happening, they all seemed to think it was a marvelous idea to shut Dilandau up in prison. Even Celena, who had spoken so well of him this weekend, didn't protest. Why on earth were they acting so perfectly natural about this?

Soon she and her elder sister were climbing back into their carriage to return home. She took the opportunity to ask 'What was that all about? Why is everybody all right with this?'

Erise gazed out the window next to her as the carriage pulled off down the road. The Schezar place was fading behind them when she looked back at her sister and answered in a voice filled with interest, 'They think he's going to win.'

Millerna fidgeted with her dress, 'But how could he do that?'

Erise shook her head, 'I don't know, but it seems they do.' She returned her gaze to the country traveling along outside her window and smiled amusedly to herself. Whatever that was all about, it was surely going to be very interesting.


	13. Win or Lose

Twin Moons

Chapter Twelve

Win or Lose

'What?' Celena looked scrutinizing at Dilandau who slumped in the chair across from her.

'What?' he looked back at her, baffled.

'You're upset. Why?' Celena replied simply.

'No I'm not,' Dilandau countered defensively.

'Yes you are. Why?' Celena demanded.

'He's worried about the trial, of course. Stop badgering him, Celena,' Allen scolded her as he unfolded his napkin.

'I'll badger him as I please!' Celena shot back curtly.

'I'm not worried,' Dilandau protested. 'It's not like I have delusions of winning or anything.'

Allen gave him a dismayed look and Celena looked both triumphant and mightily irritated. 'So that's it,' she said reprovingly, 'you think we're trying to get rid of you or something. Honestly, Dilandau, don't you have any other song to play? We agreed because we think you'll win!'

Dilandau stared at them incredulously, 'Why? What on Gaea would make you think that?'

Celena sighed in exasperation, 'You're so stupid!'

'Celena, stop it,' Allen ordered and she just sniffed, skewering a bit of fish on her fork. 'Dilandau, you were an abused puppet, that's not your fault. Did you ever attack of your own volition?'

Dilandau didn't think long to come back with a retort, 'In Astoria, right after Van cut my face, I attacked him _against_ orders. The moon girl knocked him out of the way.'

Celena looked thoroughly unimpressed, 'And were you buzzed on pain killers?'

'... Yes,' Dilandau admitted. 'But that doesn't mean I didn't want to do it. People still blame drunks when they beat up their wives.'

Allen sighed, 'I wish you wouldn't be so difficult when we're trying to _help_ you.'

'Why do you care?' Dilandau asked, genuinely curious. 'Why do you care what happens to me, Allen?'

Allen looked at him for a long time. When had Dilandau started calling him by name? And why did he care? Finally, the words seemed to sort themselves out quite obviously, 'Because you don't deserve this. You don't deserve to have been treated so poorly. No one does, but especially such a nice kid as you.'

Dilandau was thoroughly taken aback. He stared at Allen incredulously, his mouth opening and shutting, trying to say something but having no idea what. It was the oddest thing anyone had ever said to him. He glanced to Celena who was beaming proudly at her brother. After several minutes the only thing he could manage to say was '... Nice?'

Allen nodded and Celena spoke happily and insistently, 'And the reason your going to win that trial is because you practically ooze charm.'

Dilandau stared at her now, bewildered, 'What?'

Celena laughed, 'Oh please, you always have. You should have noticed by now, even half-crazed and abusive your Slayers all adored you. It's in the blood you know, all Schezars are terribly charming.' She grinned and Allen chuckled, nodding, and Dilandau felt suddenly very warm and happy.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau lay atop his duvet with his head hanging off the foot of the bed and his unshod feet around and under pillows. He gazed at the neatly papered wall ahead of him and thought. His trial would be in about a week. Celena and Allen were sure he could win. They wanted him to win and so he would.

He smiled. He'd never been on trial before and he faced possible execution at the hands of foreign diplomats, but he felt no anxiety at all. In fact, he couldn't remember ever feeling better in his life. He looked at the bandage on his hand and poked at it with the other. It hurt more today than it had before.

He sat up and then almost lay back down again as the blood rushed around his head. He pulled off the bandage and looked at the cuts underneath. The cheeky maid had been right; they were quite raged and now looked quite sickly as well. Allen had said it might get infected. Dilandau sighed and lay back down, letting the wound breath.

He'd been surprised and worried when Erise had told him that most of the allies were not sending just representatives, but the rulers themselves were coming. Celena had pointed out that this was better for him, even if a representative sympathized with him, they could have been ordered to vote him guilty no matter what. A ruler got to make up their own mind.

Power again. That must be nice, Dilandau thought, to be in charge of your own decisions. Of course, who really was? Even kings and queens had to consider what their people wanted them to do or be unseated by revolution.

No one was free, he thought bleakly. He watched the wallpaper for a few minutes before another thought occurred to him. But all connected, to be free of everything, one would have to be totally alone, and then they wouldn't be free at all, they'd be prisoner of their own loneliness.

His mind snapped back to the trial again and his features darkened. Van Fanel was coming, of course. Every time that thought came to mind, Dilandau's stomach churned. Van wouldn't let him win. Van hated him, and with good reason. Van was, without a doubt, the most terrifying person he'd ever met. More terrifying than the sorcerers even.

Dilandau shuddered with dread. Van was the only thing he was really worried about. And suppose the other leaders just followed Van's lead? From what Dilandau understood, Fanelia had become rather influential since the war. And when he didn't win, would Celena and Allen be angry with him?


	14. Arrivals to the Palas

Twin Moons

Chapter Thirteen

Arrivals to the Palas

It was a day's trip by air from Fanelia to Astoria, and though it was fast, Van wished he could have ridden. There was nothing to do on the airship but think and by the time they reached the palace in Palas* Van was mentally exhausted and grouchy, as he had been since Allen had first mailed him that Dilandau was back in the flesh.

'Van!' Van looked up to see a small blonde boy running towards him across the marble floor. Prince--no-- Duke Chid stopped in front of him and gave a small, excited bow. 'It's so good to see you again. And you Meryl. I hope that repairs on Fanelia are going well?' he said politely.

'They're going very well, Chid, thank you,' Van beamed down at the young boy who was looking back up at him with the great admiration that Van had only seen him give Allen last time they'd met. 'And Freid as well?' Chid nodded, smiling brightly. 'And I hope you have been well too.'

'Very well, thank you, Lord Van,' Chid beamed back at him.

'Van! Meryl!' another cheerful voice sounded from across the entry hall. Queen Millerna, dressed in a regal gown came gliding up towards him, smiling widely. Beside her walked a taller woman with short but elegantly curling honey-blonde hair. Millerna hugged Van and then Meryl as she came up, her smile bright and warm, 'It seems like it's been such a long time! How have you been?'

Meryl stayed politely silent, as she'd taken to doing at formal meetings in recent months. She'd become much more aware of propriety lately, which Van found disappointing as he'd always enjoyed her silly distractions in the most deadly serious times. But since he'd made her member of his cabinet, she'd seemed to have decided that it was time to grow out of her childish giddiness.

Van smiled back at Millerna, 'Well. Fanelia's almost completely rebuilt and the economy is picking up nicely.'

'I meant _you_, Van,' Millerna laughed, 'How have _you_ been?'

'I've been fine,' Van shrugged.

A touch of sadness came to Millerna's eyes for a moment as she thought of Hitomi. How could Van be anything but miserable with his love a world away? She saw him glance curiously to her companion and jumped, 'Oh, how terribly rude of me! Van Fanel, this is Celena Schezar.'

Van's mouth opened slightly in surprise as Celena curtsied and uttered some polite greeting. When he'd seen her at the end of the Great War, she'd looked so empty and tired, even downright homely. He did recognize her now that he realized who she was, her features were all the same, except that her hair now bobbed bouncily at her shoulders, but she seemed to fill them now.

Celena smiled warmly at him, her soft blue eyes completely friendly and welcoming. Meryl nudged him slightly and he realized, with embarrassment, that he must have been staring. He bowed hastily and stammered, 'Y-you're looking well, Lady Celena.'

'As are you, Lord Van,' she replied in a soft, smooth voice like warm honey. If honey were a person, it would be just like this one, Van mused. She was still smiling at him with the same warm sweetness --honey-- and was infinitely composed and flawless. She looked like a china doll or a painting, but with more life in her eyes than either.

Van felt a prickle of heat in his cheeks and focussed his attention quickly back on Millerna, who was speaking again, 'You must be exhausted from your trip.' she turned to a maid who Van hadn't noticed come up, 'Marie, would you please show Lord Van and Meryl to their rooms.'

'Yes, M'Lady,' Marie curtsied to Millerna and then to Van and turned, 'If you'll follow me, M'Lord.'

Van and Meryl followed her to a hallway with red carpets until she stopped at a door on the left, opened it and curtsied again to Van. 'You're room, M'Lord,' she said. 'Is there anything I can have sent up?'

'No, this'll be fine, thank you,' Van bowed back to her and she curtsied one last time before silently gesturing for Meryl to follow. Van felt annoyed at the brief manner she seemed to be giving his friend, but Meryl didn't take notice of it and followed her cheerfully. Van turned into his room and sat down on the bed. His trunk had already been brought in and a tray of little biscuit things and wine sat on a table near the door.

He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was taken aback and annoyed to find that he was still thinking about Celena. He was in the process of thinking how terrible it would have been if he _had_ killed her along with Dilandau at the end of the Great War when there thankfully came a knock at the door.

'Come in,' he said, glad for a distraction from his current train of thought.

The door opened and Meryl stepped in, grinning from ear to ear, her eyes shining brightly. Van looked at her with curiosity as she closed the door softly behind her and seemed almost to float as she walked over to him. 'What is it?' Van asked baffled by her mood.

'I'm in a stateroom,' Meryl almost whispered. 'They put me in a stateroom.'

Van was still confused at the level of her reaction, 'You were in a stateroom last time we were here.'

'I was sharing it with Hitomi,' Meryl shook her head, 'That didn't count. They put me in my own stateroom. Can you believe it?'

Van laughed, 'It means that much to you?'

'Oh, yes,' Meryl sighed dreamily. 'They're treating me just like nobility.'

'You are,' Van corrected her firmly.

Meryl smiled warmly at Van. He did try so hard to make her feel human. She hugged him tightly around the neck, 'Thank you, Lord Van. You're fabulous.'

*) Ok, seriously, does that piss anybody else off? The palace of Palas? Who the hell was on naming duty in this show? And no, you can't call it a castle, a castle is a fortress, a palace is where royalty is kept.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

By evening, all the diplomats participating in the trial had arrived and the largest dining hall was filled with the voices of many people chatting, gossiping and joking. Van found himself sitting across form Allen and his sister with Meryl sitting at his side, looking at her slightly suspiciously. The conversation between himself and the Knight of Caeli was stiff and overly polite until Celena broke in suddenly.

'You two,' she said calmly, looking Allen and then Van in the eye, 'are good friends and comrades. You've been through a lot together and know and respect each other very much. Please, let's leave all feelings regarding the trial in the courtroom. Enjoy dinner and the company and forget why we're all here for an hour.'

Van gazed at her a moment, she had a point, but how was he supposed to just forget? 'I apologize if I have offended you, Lady Celena, and you, Allen,' Van said carefully. 'But my feelings on the matter make it very difficult for me to forget the current situation. I have been loosing sleep of late and brooding over the matter and--'

'You haven't even met him yet,' Celena said placidly.

Van was taken aback, Allen looked worriedly at Celena who only gazed strait into Van's eyes, boring through him with their intensity. 'What are you talking about? Lady Celena, I have--'

'No, you haven't met him. You have met what the sorcerers made of him. A shell, a doll, a machine.' She did not seem like honey at all now. She looked as though she were carved out of cold marble and her voice was harsh and quiet. 'Excuse me,' she said as she stood and walked silently away from the fine dinner.

Van stared after her as she left the room. Meryl instantly started telling Allen, who looked very uncomfortable, about the heat wave in Fanelia that year.

'We are worried about a drought, of course,' she was saying, 'but it really hasn't been that bad. Now that construction is almost finished, people have much more leisure time and the river next to the main city has been filled with people wading and swimming every time I've been by it.' She laughed and did her best to hold up a rather one-sided conversation the rest of the meal. She knew Lord Van was in no state to.


	15. Tempers Rising

Twin Moons

Chapter Fourteen

Tempers Rising

Celena angrily paced around Dilandau's room telling him about dinner and how very irritated she had been by it. They were staying in the palace during the trial so that they didn't have to ride in from the country everyday. Dilandau rested his cheek in his hand and watched her moving around his floor.

'He's just terrible! I can see it from his point of view of course, I mean, his kingdom was destroyed, but still,' she fumed, 'there was no reason to be taking it out on Allen! That's just unreasonable!'

'Well he is harboring me. It'd feel like a betrayal, wouldn't it?' Dilandau took this rare opportunity of Celena being angry to be the reasonable one. 'Allen knew damn well that Van hated me. That's what's got him upset.'

Celena pouted, she hated it when Dilandau seemed more rational than she did. 'He hasn't the right to. He doesn't even know you,' she crossed her arms completing the look.

Dilandau laughed at her, which only made her pout more. 'When has that ever mattered? Really, the less you know someone, the easier it is to hate them, right?'

Celena turned her head with a 'Hmph!' and looked at the wall. 'You're making it very difficult to be angry, you know!' she complained.

'You want to be angry?' Dilandau asked, still quite amused.

'Yes,' Celena stuck her lip out farther. 'I'm very tired and being I'd rather be angry than grumpy.'

'Go to bed then, stupid!' Dilandau giggled.

Celena looked sheepish and twisted the toe of her shoe around on the rug. 'I'm too hungry,' she admitted, 'I left before I'd finished eating.'

Dilandau grinned at her and tossed a dinner roll she caught it, blushing in embarrassment. 'I don't see why you have to eat up here anyway,' Celena said looking for a new subject to be cross about.

Dilandau sighed, annoyed with her funk, 'It would be inappropriate for me to eat down with all the people that are going to be judging me and such. As of yet, I'm a criminal to all of them and it would just be weird, Celena. Stop trying to make yourself angry and go to bed.'

Celena glared at him as she stuffed the rest of the roll into her mouth and then nodded curtly and left. Dilandau chuckled lightly, pulling his book from under the chair he was sitting on.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The morning of the first day of trial, as Van dreaded, Celena Schezar came up and sat herself right across from him at breakfast. She was winsome in her pale blue lace dress and with the morning sun shining off her loose hair and turning it to gold. Her eyes were no longer cold and stony, he was relieved to see, and he greeted her politely and asked how she felt that morning.

'I must apologize for my behavior last night,' she said in her honey voice. 'I was quite tired and had been under much stress that day.'

Van nodded dumbly and it took him a minute to respond, 'I may have been remiss as well. I was rather tired too.'

Celena shook her head, 'You said nothing unreasonable, I was just looking for a reason to be properly upset... as Dilandau pointed out to me.'

Van just stared at her, taken aback again. What on Gaea did she mean? Why would Dilandau have defended him? That made no sense at all. She was just trying to upset him, Van realized, she was trying to make him the instigator of an argument. He felt suddenly bitter with her as he realized that.

They ate in silence until Meryl came and sat next to Van, asking how they'd slept and talking about what a lovely morning it was. She's talking about the weather, Van thought, that was a desperate move.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Van found the courtroom quite interesting, the trial seemed to be organized far differently from those he had been a part of in Fanelia. The representatives of the Allied States, mostly the rulers themselves or direct relatives, were assembled in a panel at the front of the room. In the middle of the panel sat Millerna and Dryden, Van was to the right of Dryden with the crown prince of Daedalius on his other side. There was a raised wooden box with a door on the right side and a chair in it directly in front of the panel and three sections of pews behind it that were reminiscent of an Astorian temple.

People were filing in now to fill the pews, Meryl was three rows back in the center group of pews and Celena and Allen took their seats with the Princess Erise sitting in the front of that group, right behind the box. Once the audience had stopped moving about, Dilandau came in, flanked by two guards but restrained in no way. It struck Van suddenly, as he watched them walk Dilandau to the box, that their manner was more of protecting than escorting.

Anger boiled within Van, surely this charade couldn't go so deep? He was obviously imagining things.


	16. The Trial Begins

Twin Moons

Chapter Fifteen

The Trial Begins

Dryden made the expected formal statements and started the trial. After telling everyone the reason Dilandau was there, as if they didn't already know. He explained how the trial would work for the many foreign diplomats unfamiliar with the Astorian legal system. Members of the panel would question him and Dilandau would answer truthfully. Simple enough, if the scum would hold with his oath of truth, which Van for one highly doubted.

Questions were trivial, stupid and often absurd. Little things, 'Did you participate in the siege of this-and-such nation?', 'Did you kill this-and-such person?', 'How long were you in Zaibach?', 'What do you mean, you can't remember? You were there!'

For several hours the King of Cesario and the Duke of Egzardia grilled him on his past before the war, they kept pressing him to give them information from before he was nearly twelve and kept getting nothing, saying he couldn't remember.

'Six years? You expect us to believe you just don't remember six years of your life?' Duke Egzard demanded.

'My dear duke,' Dryden broke in, 'He _was_ with the sorcerers, it is entirely possible that Dilandau did not exist until the age of twelve. Who are you to say how long it takes to create a warrior? I would think that, given that I have never seen a six year old pilot a melef, it obviously takes _at least_ that long.'

Dilandau looked very relived as the Duke ceased this string of questions and they moved on. They went through the higher ups, who were they? What was Dilandau's position in Zaibach? What did he do? Who worked under him? Who worked over him? It took a boring few hours to move past this into the things that Van wanted to talk about, but he knew that there was a proper order to things like this. It was rather like small talk, really, start with the simple things and work your way higher.

It was well into the afternoon before Chid (of all people) hesitantly asked about Fanelia. Dilandau went paler as the subject shifted in that direction.

'Why did you attack Fanelia?' he asked quietly at a lull, looking very self-conscious.

'To capture the guymelef Escaflowne,' Dilandau answered, gripping the edge of the box, his eyes flicking momentarily to Van.

'And you destroyed it completely?' Chid asked cautiously.

Dilandau just nodded, swallowing.

'The graveyard wasn't touched,' Van said in a way that one couldn't tell weather he was asking a question or simply making a statement.

Dilandau nodded slowly and then changed his mind and shook his head, 'No, Guimel knocked over two headstones.'

Van stared hard at him, 'Two?'

'Yes.'

'Exactly?'

'Yes.'

'Why do you know how many headstones were knocked over? Why _should_ you _care_? It's a rather trivial point, isn't it?' Van glared at Dilandau.

Dilandau looked scandalized, 'Trivial? You take your ancestors so lightly? Don't you have any respect for the dead? I consider a cemetery to be holy ground. To defile a grave is to defile the memory of the one buried there.'

The panel exchanged many glances before the prince of Deadalus loudly asked what they were all wondering, 'Are you telling me, that you have more respect for the dead than human life?'

'No, no, of course not,' Dilandau rocked in his seat. He was hunched and seemed to be talking more to himself than the assembled royals. 'It's just, they couldn't get angry, could they, for not killing people that are already dead... They never minded me letting the grave yards alone... temples too, I never touched those.'

'That's a lie! The temple in the city was destroyed!' Van roared angrily.

'Yes... it was... they dropped a firebomb into it from the fortress. They were awfully angry. Said no building was supposed to be left standing,' Dilandau's voice caught on the last word. He made a sound somewhere between a sob and a cough and began shaking as he went on. 'I should have just knocked it over during the siege. After, when they put the bomb on it, it was all full of people. Of course they'd go to the temple. Even if it hadn't been the only thing standing, of course they'd want to pray! God, that was so stupid. To think they'd leave it alone. I didn't take them seriously enough...'

Everyone watched for a while as Dilandau rocked back and fourth, shaking ever more violently and digging his finger nails into the bottom of his chair. Tears started running from his unfocussed eyes and everyone was beginning to feel sick to their stomachs.

'Dilandau,' Dryden said softly, watching the young man start as though he had forgotten where he was, 'Who is "they"?'

'They? Th-the generals... Dornk-kirk... you know... the people above me... the ones who gave me my orders...'

'And in the siege on Fanelia, "they" ordered that no structures be left standing?' Dryden's voice was still soft and coaxing, as though he were talking to a child.

No one could really say how, given how violently Dilandau was shaking to begin with, but they all saw him shiver just then. 'Not just that... Gatti was the only one who knew... he read the orders to me... I don't know why they wanted that... probably just because they knew it would upset Folken... F-Fanelia was to be utterly burned so that it looked like d-dragons had done it... and there were to b-be... no... witnesses to say o-therwise... no one was sup-posed to escape... no man woman or ch-child was supposed to l-leave Fanelia alive... I didn't tell... I never told the rest of my Slayers...' Dilandau drew his knees up to his chin, pressing his heals into the seat beneath him. He shook more violently still as he rocked there.

'God, that's horrible...' Millerna whispered into her hands. She stifled a sob and attempted to hide how much listening to all this had effected her by asking a simple question that ought to have a simple answer. 'But weren't they angry? That you'd disobeyed orders?'

Dilandau laughed bitterly, 'Of course they were angry! Angry enough to use a heated fire poker on me!' he buried his face in his knees for a moment as he either laughed or cried. No one, not even he, could tell which it was.

Millerna doubled over in her seat as though she had been hit. She cupped her hands over her mouth and breathed very fast and loudly into them, tears rolling down her cheeks. She was using all of her will power to fight the urge to vomit.

'I think,' Dryden stood up calmly, giving Millerna's hair a stroke as he did, 'that we should recess now.'

The other royals agreed unanimously.

'Then the trial will resume Thursday at ten,' Dryden said coolly and the assembly fled the courtroom as quickly as they could.

Dilandau was still rocking and shaking in his chair and had begun chewing on his hand as Celena and Allen came up on either side of him and coaxed him out of his reverie.

'What are you trying to do? Bite you hand off? Let go,' Allen pulled Dilandau's hand away from his mouth and mopped at the small trickle of blood coming from the indentation of one of his canines.

Dilandau whimpered slightly, his eyes still not focussing on anything, and Celena stroked his hair. 'Shhh. They're gone for now. No ones going to ask you anything else today. Shhh, calm down. It's ok. That's all behind you now. All just memories and it will never happen again.'

Dilandau came back to himself and melted into his seat. 'I did very badly, I think.'

'You did famously,' Allen corrected. 'Millerna was crying, did you see? And everyone was looking just horrified.'

'If there's one thing I'm good at it's striking horror into people's hearts...' Dilandau said listlessly.

'Really, you did very well. You were so earnest. I think you've already won, really,' Celena smiled encouragingly.

'Won what?' Dilandau got up and turned away from them.

'Your life!' Allen grabbed Dilandau's shoulder and turned him around. 'Would you stop feeling sorry for yourself long enough to start over! You've had a terrible life in Zaibach but that's over now. You have the chance to start again and do something good with your life!'

Dilandau sighed, looking into Allen's optimistic, encouraging eyes, 'Nothing can make up for what I've done already,' Allen's eyes went very sad at that and Dilandau looked at the ground.

Dilandau was starting to feel very dizzy and was annoyed with the way the ground moved around in front of his eyes. He felt himself falling and slumped into Allen before he had time to react to it.

'Dilandau, are you alright?' Allen held him away to look him in the face. 'You look terrible.'

'I feel terrible. I'm exhausted. But I haven't done anything today!' Dilandau was very annoyed at his own weakness.

Celena slipped under his shoulder to help support him. 'Emotion can be very tiring,' she assured him.

'Mm,' Dilandau agreed sleepily.

'Come on, we'd better get you to bed,' Allen said warmly.


	17. Annoyances

Twin Moons

Chapter Sixteen

Annoyance

Van pushed a limp, dark green vegetable around his plate. It had been boiled so long he could no longer tell what it was supposed to be. He didn't understand why it was that Astorians insisted upon cooking _everything_.

'Is something the matter, your highness?'

Celena was sitting across from him again; her presence was somehow comforting rather than gloating as he'd expected it to be. Her bottomless eyes made it impossible to shrug her off like all the other concerned persons that had been annoying him since the trial had recessed.

'None of this is right,' Van was disgusted with how whiny he sounded just then. 'It's just all wrong. Why'd he have to go and have a soul?'

Celena threw back her head in laughter, golden curls of hair bobbing merrily about her face. The gay, musical sound of her laughter seemed to flood relief into the room, as though a collective sigh was taken. Stress melted in the face of such carefree joy.

'Oh, Lord Van,' she giggled once she had regained composure somewhat. 'Do you have any idea how silly and childish you sound right now?'

Van smiled and blushed with embarrassment. 'Yeah, I know. It's just...'

'He was the perfect villain in your mind,' Celena finished after a moment's silence.

'Yeah... and it just seems like killers and fake people shouldn't have souls, y'know?' Van grinned sheepishly.

Celena stared him calmly in the eye for a time before speaking again, 'Have you never killed, Lord Van?'

Van was taken aback, 'Well, of course, I was in a war and all. But that doesn't--'

'Have you never questioned your reality? Have you never questioned whether what you were doing was right? Have you never felt that you'd lost control of your life? Yourself?' Celena pinned him with her hard, blue gaze.

Van stared back at her silently for what seemed like a long time. Finally sound came back to his lips as he found a way to put his thoughts into words. 'How is it, Lady Celena, that you've lived less than half your life and yet you're the smartest, wisest, most insightful person at this table?'

'Well, to start with, many philosophers have pointed out that heredity may not be the best way to choose rulers,' Celena grinned.

Van blushed and looked down at his plate.

'Of course,' she continued, 'Every once in a while, the world does get lucky.'

Van blushed harder as he looked back up into her warm smiling face.

'I hear Fanelia's economy is doing better now than it was before the war. And in such a short time too. It amazes me how fast you've rebuilt, Lord Van.'

Van grinned, his face even redder, 'It wasn't all me, though. I did help, of course, but there was so much paper work to be done, I did less real work than anyone else in the kingdom,' he looked back down at his plate.

'Real work? So only physical toil is valid, is it? Your Majesty, you inspired the world. You made your people want to rebuild. You gave them security and pride. You made them care enough to stay. To rebuild rather than just wandering off to somewhere else. You made your country great through your words and actions and that you found any time at all to help with the repairs amazes me. You are a truly extraordinary person, Lord Van,' Celena's words were soft and warm as a thick wool blanket and made Van turn a darker shade of red like wool also tends to do when it itches your skin for too long.

Van fidgeted with his napkin and stammered, 'You really don't have to call me that. I feel like I should be calling you with more respect, you're smarter than I could ever hope to be.'

Celena smiled, 'All right, Van then. So long as you stop calling me "Lady Celena".'

'Deal,' Van grinned.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

What's that? Dilandau grimaced. He was drifting back towards consciousness slowly, being irritated by something. Poke. His eyes flickered open as a long slender finger once again poked his nose.

'Wh' th' hell'er you doing?' he demanded sleepily, pushing Celena away.

She giggled, 'Good morning. We have a recess today. I'm going to play at the bazaar. I'm afraid your not invited, but I wanted to see how you were doing before I left.'

'Lovely,' Dilandau batted her away as she poked him again. 'Stop that. Go, play, have fun. What time is it?'

'Nine-thirty about,' Celena answered patting his head, he was silly when he was only half-awake. 'You've slept in a bit. What are you going to do?'

'Avoid meeting anyone? I don't know. _Stop it!_'

Celena laughed. 'I think Erise has stolen Allen for the day, sorry to leave you alone today, but I will be helping your case,' she poked his nose again and flitted out of the room before he could ask her what she meant.

Dilandau grumbled as he got out of bed and dressed in his favorite new outfit. He always felt better when he was well dressed. The maid had brought up a breakfast tray, which he sampled before poking his head out the bedroom door and then stealthily making his way downstairs and leaving through a servant entrance.


	18. Act the Part

Twin Moons

Chapter Seventeen

Act the Part

Meryl was quite miffed. Lord Van had gone somewhere with stupid Celena and left her at the palace. Meryl didn't like Celena one bit. Why was Lord Van following her around? It wasn't fair.

She kicked a stone and it hopped up, falling back onto the bare top of her foot. She snarled at it annoyedly, but it didn't care, it was a stone. She pointedly pretended nothing had happened and wandered off across the grass. Despite the late spring heat, the grass was green and lush from the humidity and rain that flowed in off the ocean and Meryl soon took off her sandals to enjoy the damp springiness under her pads.

Meryl prowled through the semi-wooded area of the palace grounds, stalking pigeons and feeling much cheerier than she would have done if she'd gone to the crowded, smelly bazaar with Lord Van (though she'd never admit it). She batted at a leaf that wafted down in front of her and rolled in the sun, giggling happily.

Dropping her sandals at the foot of a tree where she'd be able to find them again, Meryl followed the sound of running water out to a cobbled canal flowing merrily through the garden. She smiled, wondering if there were any fish in it to watch swimming, and then froze as she looked up. The silver-haired subject of the trial that had brought her here, the destructive bastard himself, was sitting hunched only a few meters away from her.

He was aloud to just wander around the palace during this recess? Had Dryden and Millerna suddenly become incredibly stupid? And what was he doing, anyway?

Meryl crept quietly back into the trees and then through them towards Dilandau. She crouched behind a perfectly manicured shrub and peeked out at the crazy murderer.

'You're not very quiet, you know,' Dilandau said casually into the air.

Meryl froze in shock.

'What are you doing, spying on me?' Dilandau turned his head in her direction.

Meryl, furious that her stealth had failed so miserably, stood and glared at him. Dilandau gazed at her and then turned back towards the little canal. 'You look familiar. Who are you?' he asked in a voice that said he didn't really care much about the answer.

This lack of attention made Meryl even angrier. She puffed herself up and answered in a voice filled with contempt, 'No doubt you saw me during the Great War when you were trying to _murder_ Lord Van! I was ever at his side.' she glared at him darkly, 'You may have convinced some of those stupid nobles that you're just some victim or something but I don't buy it one bit! I saw you in action! I know what a monster you are!'

Dilandau snorted, 'Lovely speech. Do you have a point or would you kindly go away and leave me alone?'

Meryl's jaw dropped in shocked rage, 'You think you're so much better than--'

'No, I don't,' he said sharply, gods, how many times had he heard that? 'It'd be a damn good trick for me to be better than anyone. I'd just like you to go away. I just want to watch the fish and not have to put up with anyone interrogating me today,' Dilandau didn't look up at the obnoxious cat-girl once as he spoke.

She clenched her teeth and her fists, shaking slightly with anger and resolving herself to be as annoying as possible. She marched up and plopped herself down on the edge of the canal just a meter from Dilandau who glared at her. 'Well maybe _I_ want to watch the fish too!' she proposed defiantly.

The two glared at each other for a long time, neither paying any attention to the goldfish darting around in the clear water and neither intending to give up their spot. After several minutes it became obvious that neither had any intention of breaking the glare and it was time to resort to insults.

'Damn you're an annoying little kid,' Dilandau growled.

Meryl's tail bristled, all the fur coming to stand on end and making it look five times it's former width, 'I'm not a kid! I'm fourteen!'

Dilandau laughed, 'My mistake. Kitten.'

Meryl's lips were pulling themselves away from her teeth and the fur on her back was standing up. Her posture changed ever so slightly into an aggressive one and a low growl came to the back of her throat. 'You're evil and mean and horrible and _rude!_' she spat.

Dilandau gave up the staring contest, turning back towards the fish but not taking them in at all, 'Point?'

Meryl forgot to be angry for a moment as she was overcome with curiosity. She could see quite plainly that he'd been hurt by her feeble insult. Why? Wasn't it true? 'What's wrong with you?' she asked cautiously, and was very annoyed at how soft her voice sounded as she said it.

Chuckling bitterly, Dilandau shot back, 'What's not wrong with me? That'd be a shorter list for sure.'

Meryl shifted uncomfortably, her fur had flattened itself out again and her posture was more relaxed, why? He wasn't acting like the monster he was supposed to be. He was acting like... she wasn't sure what.

It was no use to him to lie to Meryl. She was just a cat; nobody would listen to her (except Lord Van, but he didn't know that) anyway. Why should he put on an act for her? 'What'd you do to your hand?' she asked having noticed the bandage earlier but put no thought into it until now.

'Tried to cut my wrist,' Dilandau shrugged.

Meryl tilted her head to the side, raising her eyebrows, 'Why? You'd die.'

'That is the idea,' Dilandau shrugged again.

Further baffled, Meryl put her legs out over the side of the canal, dangling her feet in the water and settling in as though she intended to stay for a while. Dilandau had abruptly become the most interesting thing on the palace grounds and she had very little to do that day. 'Why are you doing this trial thing anyway? I thought Dryden gave you asylum,' she waited for a moment as he thought, surprised to find herself greatly interested in the answer.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'I've never really seen so much stuff. What's this for?' Van pointed to a clump of brightly colored feathers sitting on a merchant's table and Celena shrugged.

'Looks like something to put in a fancy hairdo. Feathers have come into fashion lately. I shudder to think what that's doing to the bird population,' Celena answered in her odd, warm, sweet voice.

'Huh,' Van looked back up at Celena; she was quite a bit taller than him with a very thin and graceful figure that made her seem even taller. Her shoulder length, honey-colored curls were pulled back from her ears with a clip made from some sort of shiny shell. She turned her head, gazing back at him with her cool, friendly powder-blue eyes. Van looked away, his face burning slightly and picked up his pace slightly. Celena matched it easily, even burdened by the thick, puffed skirts surrounding her legs.

'Would you like to see a play?' Celena asked sweetly, growing slightly tired of the noises and smells of the bazaar.

'A what?' Van paused looking back at her curiously.

'A dramatic performance. There are several theatres in Palas and I know one that does lunchtime shows. It's really fun. Last month Allen took me to see an opera,' Celena recalled dreamily. She loved going to the theatre and took any excuse to.

Van nodded, Fanelia didn't have much theatre and he'd never been very interested in it, but Celena did look quite hopeful and maybe it would be interesting.

Celena smiled and took his arm and Van felt another wave of heat come to his face as she said, 'It's a little off the main bazaar, up this way.'

After getting tickets for the performance, Celena suggested they have lunch in a small cafe next to the theatre. Van didn't much care for Astorian cuisine, he found as he ate a cold fish sandwich, but when Celena asked he was surprised to find himself saying it was very good. She smiled warmly back at him and continued eating her wretched-looking fish pasta.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'Didn't they get angry at you for kicking them around?' Meryl watched Dilandau's face closely; she was amused and fascinated by the wide array of expressions that it could pull itself into. She was now right next to him, one foot still swinging lazily in the water and the other curled underneath her so that she was facing him, though he still mostly watched the fish, or at least the water.

He chuckled lightly, 'It's kind of how Zaibach worked, abuse... some of them did call me some creative names when they thought I couldn't hear them,' Meryl was confused by the wistful smile that played across his lips at that. 'I didn't here much of that after Gein beat me right in front of them, though.'

Meryl's eyes widened, 'Who's Gein?'

'General of the Red Copper Army the former,' Dilandau laughed, 'Executed in Daedalus shortly after the war.'

'And he beat you up right in front of your troops?'

'Only a little bit,' Dilandau gazed up at the sun patterned across the trees on the opposite bank, 'He was just angry, I got punished later.' A wide smile broke across his face suddenly. 'He broke two of my ribs and I didn't even squeak!' Dilandau declared triumphantly.

Meryl's mouth opened in horrified shock, 'He broke you but he still decided to punish you more?'

Dilandau laughed, which stuck Meryl as very odd and morbid, 'All the more so. He was damn pissed-off that I took it so easily.'

Meryl's mouth opened farther, her face a mask of utter horrified indignation, 'He punished you for taking punishment? That's horrible!'

'Took it as a personal insult. Too weak to really hurt me and such,' Dilandau shrugged, looking back at her and laughing at the look on her face. He found it odd, it had bothered him so much to talk about his life yesterday in front of the court, he hated to even think about it, but talking to this odd pink-haired cat was making the whole thing seem less terrible. 'He hated me anyway. I couldn't figure out why then, but I guess he would have had to have known the Sorcerers made me. Everybody hated the Sorcerer's experiments. Called them worthless freaks. They did have a habit of breaking down after a few years. I'm surprised it took me so long to start loosing it.'

'Did you know you were?' Meryl asked quietly, her ears now drooped, she looked sadly thoughtful.

Dilandau looked at her curiously; the new expression was quite different than anything else he'd seen on her. 'Vaguely... sometimes,' he answered slowly, 'They used things, drugs of some kind, to make me forget things. But memories don't just go away, I'd have nightmares about them...'

They sat in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts, and then Meryl began to speak hesitantly, 'I know it's not really the same at all... but being a beastman, I was far less than a second-class citizen. Everyone except Lord Van and his mother and Valgus... and Folken before he left, hated me because they didn't want me in such close association with the prince. They wanted to forget I existed... And the other beastmen hated me because I lived in the palace, said I wasn't one of them and didn't deserve to be... didn't know their suffering...' she trailed off, a lump rising in her throat.

Dilandau studied her for a while before replying, 'I never saw much of the prejudice, really. The only beastmen I met were Folken's cat-girls and Jajuka... I was too far gone when I met Jajuka, it didn't even occur to me as odd that there would be a beastman in the army... I liked Naria and Eria, though, I thought they were really neat... I only met them briefly but I heard other officers say some pretty cruel things about them. Never made sense to me, they were some of the best pilots in Zaibach...'

Meryl blinked hard, very annoyed with herself for the tears burning at her eyes. Lord Van was the only human she'd ever heard express disgust at the way beastmen were treated. She suddenly laughed out loud. It seemed so absurd to compare Lord Van with his mortal enemy. Of course, it seemed even odder that she was sitting there, having a nice little chat with him. She laughed harder.

Dilandau stared at her looking thoroughly puzzled. 'What?' he asked in a perplexed voice that made Meryl laugh even harder.

'_You!_ ' she laughed, 'How can _you_ be such a humanitarian? What the hell kind of drugs were they keeping you on?'

Dilandau flushed and looked back at the fish. He just remembered how hostile and angry Meryl had been... how long had it been? A few hours, he realized, noticing the angle of the sun on the trees. It was well past noon. Why had she made such a complete turn around? He looked back at the cat-girl, her eyes shining with tears; she'd fallen back onto the grass and was still giggling merrily.

Dilandau found himself even more surprised than he had been at her outburst. 'I don't know your name!' he said with a slightly shocked and apologetic tone.

'Oh, yeah,' Meryl's look of surprise dissolved into more giggles, 'Meryl. I'm Meryl.'


	19. AfterDinner Argumints

Twin Moons

Chapter Eighteen

After-Dinner Argumints

'How was your day?' Celena asked, swinging into Dilandau's room looking pleased and slightly far away.

'Good,' he answered truthfully, smiling at her.

She looked back at him curiously, he did look happy, and plopped herself in a chair facing him. 'Yeah? What was good?' she asked smilingly.

He thought for a moment. 'You know, I have no idea,' he laughed and told her about his encounter with Meryl. Celena absorbed it with increasing interest, interrupting him with questions and giggling at times.

'I thought she looked nice,' Celena said thoughtfully then giggled, 'she certainly gave me a _nice_ glare at breakfast.'

Dilandau raised his eyebrows, 'Why'd she do that?'

Celena chewed her lip, 'Because I asked Van to accompany me to the bazaar.'

Dilandau stared at her disbelieving, gaping like a fish on land, 'What! Why? What the hell would possess you to do that? Are you out of your mind?'

Celena sniffed, 'Really Dilandau, I don't see what you're so upset about. I played with Van for the day, Meryl played with you!'

'That-that's different!' Dilandau stammered angrily, 'Meryl's harmless! Meryl didn't kill anybody! Meryl's not trying to get me hung!'

'Well she was,' Celena said smugly. 'And now that both she and I are working on Van, he's not going to either.'

Dilandau snorted, 'Sure! And then it's going to rain sugar and the sprites will all come out to sing and everybody will be happy!'

'Stop being stupid!'

'You're stupid!'

'No you're stupid!'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sound of muffled yelling made Allen break into a run. It was growing ever louder and angrier as he reached Dilandau's room and watched incredulously as Dilandau and Celena stood screaming at each other and speaking so quickly he couldn't make out any of what they were saying.

'_What in the name of the Water Dragon is going on here?_ ' he demanded loudly and the paused to look at him, then pointed fingers at each other and started yelling again, fast, accusing and angry. '_Be quiet!_ BE QUIET!'

Dilandau and Celena's mouths snapped shut and they looked sulkily at Allen. 'Now, quietly,' Allen said sternly, 'one at a time, why are you two screaming? Celena?'

'Dilandau's being an absolute pill!' Celena declared accusingly. 'He doesn't appreciate at all that I'm trying to help his case and just yelled at me for trying to sway Van! He's being completely unreasonable and terrible!'

Allen bit back the urge to curse and shook his head. 'Celena, go to your room,' he said, exasperated.

Celena puffed indignantly, 'No.'

'Yes,' Allen said firmly.

Celena glared at him. Allen glared back. After a few minutes, Celena realized, with quite a bit of shock, that Allen wasn't going to back down. This disgruntled her quite a bit and she stalked out of the room. She'd never lost an argument with him before.

Dilandau had his arms crossed and was pouting and pointedly not looking at Allen. 'I really do think Celena is helping you,' Allen said levelly. 'You know how people listen to her.'

Dilandau nodded sulkily. Allen sighed, 'We're all high strung. Just try to get some sleep. The trial's continuing tomorrow. Dilandau nodded again and Allen left to talk to Celena who he found to be throwing pillows angrily about her room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Van found Meryl sitting on his bed gazing thoughtfully at the floor as he came in. He smiled and greeted her and she looked up at him thoughtfully. Van watched her for a while, wondering what she was thinking. He sat down beside her and there was a quiet pause for a moment before she started speaking.

'He's for real, you know,' she said in a calm, distant way.

Van tilted his head and looked back at her, 'Who?'

'Dilandau. He's not faking it,' Meryl said quietly, meeting his gaze.

Van frowned, studying her expression for a while. She was deadly serious, he could tell, but why? 'What makes you say that?'

Meryl looked back into space and spoke slowly, carefully back, 'I spent much of the day talking to him.'

Van sputtered, 'Why?'

Meryl giggled slightly, 'He was in my fish watching spot!' She laughed outright at her silliness before continuing. 'I thought we were fighting when we started, but he started being very interesting. You know, he tried to commit suicide a week ago.'

Van stared at her a while, his mind numb until a thought occurred to him, simple and obvious. 'He was acting, Meryl.'

Meryl shook her head back at him, 'No, he wasn't.'

Van shook off the serious look she was giving him and continued, 'No, see, I went to see a play today with Celena, and it's not at all like the ones back home. People can be really convincing when they're acting. Really.'

Meryl shook her head again. 'He wasn't. I could tell. And he'd have no reason to act for me. I'm just a cat, nobody cares what I think and they wouldn't listen to me,' she said levelly. Van started to protest but she beat him to it, 'Except for you, Lord Van, and that's why I'm asking you to listen to me now.'


	20. More Questions

Twin Moons

Chapter Nineteen

More Questions

'After they'd finished making you, did the sorcerers do anything to keep you the way they wanted?' Van thought it was an odd question, the way he'd said it. But, though Meryl hadn't told him much about her conversation the previous day, she had insisted on topics for him to bring up during the trial.

Dilandau nodded from his box, he looked to be calm and collected again though his eyes betrayed deep anxiety. 'They kept me on quite a lot of drugs,' he answered smoothly. 'When I started drifting too much from being the perfect killer they wanted, they'd just increase the amount of drugs I was taking. Sometimes they'd take me back to the lab and do more work on me too.'

'Do you know as to the quantity of these drugs?' the princess of Basram asked.

Dilandau tilted back his head looking at the ceiling and thought, 'Hang on. Lets see, just before my Slayers were killed, I was up to... seven pills in the morning, three midday, six before bed, two every other day, one every three days, four weekly as well as two shots weekly and one twice weekly,' he thought for a moment longer and then nodded. 'Yeah, that was it. I can't really remember after my Slayers died. I can't remember much at all then.'

'Why?' Duke Chid asked with morbid curiosity.

'Because they were keeping me on so much I couldn't even tell if I was awake or dreaming,' Dilandau grinned wryly.

'You were in two battles after that. Are you saying that you can't remember them?' Duke Egzard rumbled.

'Only vague things,' Dilandau answered promptly, 'Images, thoughts, small things, not much really, and I have almost no memory of the final battle.'

The panel members looked intrigued by this. A few leaned forward with interest and most seemed to be trying to put their thoughts into questions. Dryden spoke first, 'Why is that, Dilandau? The last battle in particular, why can't you remember that?'

'Drugs again,' Dilandau answered airily; he seemed to be finding the trial much easier today than the previous round. 'It was a suicide mission, you know. I'd choked the previous two battles I'd been in, so the sorcerers decided they weren't going to be getting much more use out of me and, as they'd done with other subjects that were running down too much, they sent me out to die spectacularly. They put me on all sorts of stuff, to suppress fear and increase my adrenaline and make me so aggressive that I'd keep killing anything that moved until I was either killed, smashed myself into something or died of heart strain.'

There were murmurs among the audience. It certainly did sound like something those foul sorcerers would do. They'd all heard rumors about the cruelty of the infamous Zaibachian scientists.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'Well, Zaibach was really pretty brutal. At least the military, I don't really know about anything outside that. But I saw it everywhere, soldiers getting beaten up by their superiors. Just how it worked really. Gein kicked me around and I kicked my Slayers around and Folken was the only person I saw never thumping on somebody,' Dilandau seemed almost as interested in talking to the panel now as they were in listening to him.

'What was your relation to Folken?' Van asked, it was the fourth time Dilandau had mentioned Van's late elder brother and it was beginning to irritate him.

'We worked on the same ship,' Dilandau said calmly, looking strait at Van now, without the usual spark of fear and anger Van had seen there every other time they'd made eye contact. 'He gave me orders sometimes, he wasn't really my superior, but he was the Stratagos, Dornkirk's favorite, and even the generals didn't argue with him. But they all hated him, most people did.'

'And you?' Van pushed, eager for a new reason to dislike Dilandau.

'I thought he was the greatest person in Zaibach,' Dilandau answered truthfully, feeling very smug at the look that crossed Van's face. 'I never met anyone as smart as him and even though he'd been one of the youngest sorcerers, he rose above them all in just a few years and I had the strong impression that he scorned them as they did he. But he was always very diplomatic and never let it show and I was terribly impressed by that. I admired him very much.' Dilandau chewed his lip a moment and then continued, 'Gein hated him quite a bit, though. He actually directly ordered me to be rude to Folken. Rather childish of him, I think. I did get beaten up less when Folken complained to Gein about my behavior so I was increasingly rude to him as the war went on.'

'You speak very poorly of General Gein,' Dryden commented.

'Well he was a bastard,' Dilandau reasoned.

Dryden nodded and said nothing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'What happened to the scar on your face?' Van asked curiously, he hadn't thought about it much, but at one point Dilandau had turned his face so that Van could see the smooth and unmarred right cheek. He'd waited for the lull in conversation, since it didn't really seem that important.

Dilandau tapped his face thoughtfully, 'The witchi that took me out of Celena said what she'd used was a modified healing spell. All my scars are gone now... Well, I expect this'll scar rather nicely,' he grimaced at his bandaged hand.

'What happened to your hand?' Millerna asked though she already knew.

'Pen slipped when I tried to cut my wrists with it last week,' Dilandau answered flushing embarrassedly. More murmurs spread around the assembly.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Friday passed much the same as Thursday had and Dilandau found the panel's questions easy enough to answer, but on Saturday they got to asking about the Dragon Slayers and began to feel again very nervous and upset.

'And you were a Dragon Slayer?' the Duke Egzard, who was really starting to get on Dilandau's nerves, asked forcefully.

'I was their commander,' Dilandau clarified.

'How did you get to be that?' the duke asked scarcely giving Dilandau enough time to finish his sentence.

'I don't know,' Dilandau looked him in the eye and spoke in a slightly strained manner, 'I suppose the sorcerers set me up as that.'

Duke Egzard nodded, looking very much disdainful, 'So you didn't earn your rank in any way?'

Dilandau looked back at him incredulously, he really did dislike that duke, 'No. I didn't exactly join the military intentionally either. I didn't sign up to have drugs pumped into me and I didn't ask to exist at all.'

'So the primary goal of your unit was to capture Escaflowne?' Van broke in as Duke Egzard tried to hide a vaguely embarrased look.

'Yes,' Dilandau nodded, shifting his gaze to Van.

'And that's why you pursued me so exclusively and enthusiastically?' Van looked at him hard an piercingly.

'Partly, yes,' Dilandau answered calmly. 'And partly because I was afraid of you and your guymelef.'

Van blinked, surprised and confused, 'Why?'

'Because I knew you would destroy me.'

Everyone in the courtroom stared at him silently. Van tilted his head and asked in a genuinely curious voice, free of the usual malice he addressed Dilandau with, 'How?'

'I messed with your guymelef when you were being held aboard the Vione. I'd seen Folken open it by touching the energist and wanted to know how it worked. Didn't seem logical to me at all. When I got close, it went all weird and I thought at first it was going to suck me in, then it exploded. But first I... I didn't really see anything, I just felt... horror... and I knew that it would destroy me, some way a lot worse than death...' Dilandau shook his head looked at his hands. 'I don't know... I just got so scared and had to kill you first. In my fervor to kill you, I ended up enabling my destruction... Ironic, that...'

Van stared silently at the desk in front of him. He let the rest of the days questions wash over him without any input and simply quietly contemplated. He'd never even thought that Dilandau could have been afraid of him. From this new angle, everything seemed entirely different than he had thought. Could he really blame Dilandau for any of it?


	21. The Faery of Lost Children

Twin Moons

Chapter Twenty

The Faery of Lost Children

The trial was paused for Sunday and most of the visiting nobles took the opportunity to explore the sprawling city of Palas. Celena once again went off somewhere with Van, which had annoyed Dilandau very much until he realized that that meant Meryl had likely been ditched as well. He hurried to the small canal in the gardens and found her there waiting for him.

'Hey. Nothing to do, either?' she asked casually, looking up at him through her hair and pretending her head hadn't snapped around expectantly as she heard him approach.

'Yeah, not much,' Dilandau nodded, mimicking her causality. 'Want to go exploring?'

Meryl glanced up at him curiously, 'Where?'

'The city,' Dilandau gestured vaguely towards the front gates of the walls surrounding the palace. 'See what's around. You know, since your not doing anything.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Meryl grinned.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'Dilandau seems to have gained some confidence,' Erise said quietly, gazing at the grave of Encia Schezar.

Allen nodded next to her, 'He seems more alive now. He had a screaming match with Celena a few days ago.'

Erise raised an eyebrow, shifting her eyes up towards her companion, 'You seem pleased.'

Allen chuckled lightly, 'He's pussyfooted around Celena so carefully whenever she seemed at all peeved. Me too since he started being civil. He trusts us not to abandon him now, I think.'

'Ah,' Erise nodded slightly, looking back at the headstone. There was a long silence before either spoke again. Erise licked her dry lips lightly and mused, 'He's started to regard you two as family.'

'Closest thing he has now,' Allen shot back seeming very slightly defensive. 'He's basically Celena's twin though, isn't he? He is of Schezar blood.'

Erise smiled lightly but made her face again neutral before showing it to Allen, 'Would you call him your brother?'

Allen thought, gazing back at her in silence for a long time. He turned it over in his mind. When he spoke, his eyes were challenging, daring Erise to give negative comment, 'Yes. I would.'

Erise smiled as wide a smile as Allen had ever seen on her, which wouldn't have been much on anyone else, but on her it was stunning. She blinked quickly and her eyes seemed to shine unusually. She turned back toward his mother's grave again, 'I thought you would. No, I hoped you would. You've been playing the elder brother to him these past weeks, but I wasn't sure if you'd admit it.'

Allen was slightly taken aback by this odd demeanor he had not seen in her before, 'Erise?'

'You were right, Allen,' she spoke softly, fighting the lump pushing itself into her throat. She hated the way Allen seemed to be able to stir so much emotion in her. No one else, since her mother had died, had ever managed to crack her protective stoniness. She smiled again, a soft, wistful kind of smile, 'I don't think he's going to be any trouble either, any more.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'I was very young when Valgus found me,' Meryl walked carefully along a railing, her hands held out for balance. She was amused and impressed to see that Dilandau could follow her without falling off either side. She supposed that, with the specific idea of a fighter in mind, the sorcerers would of course have wanted to give him excellent coordination and balance. 'I can't really remember anything before I came to the palace. Valgus said that he found me with my mother's body, trying to wake her up, after she'd died from two arrow wounds. I'm rather glad that I can't remember that,' she admitted.

Dilandau nodded, 'Wouldn't be the most pleasant memory.'

'Valgus was Allen's swordsmaster too, did you know?' Meryl turned to look back at him as she reached the end of the bridge and jumped off the rail.

'Yeah,' Dilandau looked surprised. 'He did mention Valgus. I'd forgotten. I thought the name sounded familiar.'

'It struck me, during the war,' Meryl's eyes looked far away as she softly explaining her thoughts to Dilandau, 'how very alike Van and Allen's lives had been. They're father's both died, then just after their siblings disappear, and then their mothers fade away and Valgus just comes in with the wind, like a feary, and gives them the strength and will to survive.' She looked cautiously at Dilandau, feeling the sudden urge to confess to him a suspicion she'd never expressed to anyone before. 'Sometimes,' she said very quietly, gazing at the cobbles of the footroad next to the canal, 'I think Valgus was a faery.'

She was surprised and delighted when Dilandau not only didn't laugh at her but, in fact, nodded in agreeance. 'He sounds very magical.'

Meryl's smile quickly spread across her face, stretching it very far in its wideness. 'Like, the faery of lost children, or something. I wonder if he's still alive, really, and out their helping more children find a place in the world.'

'But only the nice ones,' Dilandau sighed listlessly.*

Meryl suddenly wanted to slap herself very hard. She felt very stupid and terrible, if cats could blush through their fur, she would have been scarlet. Of course Dilandau hadn't been found. There was no faery to save him from Zaibach. How could she have said such a stupid and callous thing?

'No... no, Dilandau,' Meryl felt as though she might cry, for making that pained look cross his face, 'It just... it can take a long time sometimes... some lost children are harder to find than others...'

Dilandau shrugged and smiled, but Meryl could still see pain behind it, and started walking again down the footroad.

*) That sounds a bit awkward, a listless sigh, given that listless is derived from a lack of wind and then sighing... yeah, I wonder if that's even really grammatically correct.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celena was annoyed with the funk Dilandau seemed to be in that evening. She had much preferred the argument they'd had after the last recess. Dilandau wouldn't tell her what was wrong and she decided that it likely had something to do with that awful little cat, Meryl. She had been somewhat indifferent to Meryl before, as the cat-girl glared at her so often, but now she felt genuine dislike for her starting to blossom. She resolved herself to be very short with Meryl at breakfast the next day.

She left Dilandau's room rather early in the evening as he said he was very tired and had gotten too much sun that day. After she'd left he indeed collapsed into bed and was soon asleep.

Vague, fuzzy, dream images whirled in his head and seemed to settle after a while and solidify into a large, gray haired man with several scars covering his face.

'Better later late than never, though.'


	22. Celena Takes a Turn

Twin Moons

Chapter Twenty-One

Celena Takes a Turn

'Dilandau was rather upset yesterday evening,' Celena commented, buttering her toast. 'You spent the day with him, didn't you, Meryl?'

Meryl glared at her. Why couldn't she just come out and say what she was really thinking? 'Why yes, I did. We explored the city east of the palace.'

'Any idea what might have got him feeling down?' Celena continued scraping the knife across her toast, though it had long since been covered with butter.

Van looked nervously between the two girls. There seemed to be a fierce, yet very sedate battle going on between them. His stomach tightened, Meryl seemed to have learned to fight like a woman somewhere, he dreaded that a quiet war of words and silence ever be waged on him.

'Why no, Celena, I haven't the _faintest_,' Meryl answered smoothly, dishing herself a few sausages.

'Really,' Celena stared across the table at Meryl who met her gaze evenly.

'_Really_.'

Celena looked quite obviously irked but swept the expression away saying, 'He wouldn't tell me what'd got to him. I thought that maybe you would know.'

'Well, as I said earlier, I'm afraid I don't,' Meryl said airily cutting her sausages. 

Celena stared calmly at her and took a bite of her toast. 'That's a shame.'

'He may have got too much sun,' Meryl said easily, smirking with her ingenuity. 'He was looking a little burnt.'

'He was,' Celena agreed, seething at Meryl's clever escape from blame.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

That day Celena sat in the box in the middle of the courtroom and answered the panel's questions of her. They all seemed to feel quite awkward speaking to her and Van stayed silent for most of the day.

They asked her what she could remember of her childhood and of the sorcerers. She spent a long time telling them about her caretaker, Jajuka, and then about the sorcerers taking her from him.

'Why were you taken by Zaibach? Wasn't Astoria a bit far to go for subjects for their experiments? And risky? Why not just use orphans of their own country?' the princess of Basram asked sternly.

'Oh, yes, of course they used orphans,' Celena smiled warmly back at her, 'but you see, I wasn't kidnapped ifor/i the sorcerers.' Everyone looked at her hard, confused and interested. 'You see,' she continued placidly, 'My father, Leon Schezar, was having a bit of a spat with Dornkirk. He had information to find Atlantis and wouldn't tell, so Dornkirk had me kidnapped to use against him, sort of a ransom for the information, I guess. My father was killed before they had a chance to use me against him, so they just handed me over to the sorcerers since I wasn't of any use to them anymore.'

There were intrigued murmurings all around. 'Lady Schezar,' Duke Egzard started, 'why did your father have knowledge of Atlantis?'

'Because he spent most of his life studying it and several years out actually looking,' Celena turned her steady, calm eyes on him. 'I never even met him because he was gone in search of it before I was born.'

More fascinated murmurs ensued.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'I can remember bits and pieces of my time sleeping in Dilandau's mind,' Celena gazed into the distance as she spoke, unfocussed and thinking. 'I remember people, all the Dragon Slayers, of course. I remember all the times Dilandau was really upset. When the Dragon Slayers died... and such.'

Van seemed to sink slightly in his seat, paling just a bit.

'When he got scared I sort of woke up, talked to him, it was rather like a dream. Very surreal and I was never quite sure which one of us was real. I do have all the memories he thought were very important in retrospect,' she chewed her lip. 'In the last eight months our minds have just sort of been bumping into each other all the time and we exchanged a lot of memories and got to know each other just in the back of our head. I'm not sure how to describe it any better than that. It's not as if there's much to compare it to.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celena was very annoyed to find Dilandau's room empty that night when she went up to talk to him. She would have been more annoyed still if she knew that he was sitting by a little cobbled canal in the garden, telling Meryl about his dream.

'That's a pretty good portent, isn't it?' Meryl giggled, swishing her hand through the water.

'How do you mean?' Dilandau asked, gazing up at the fading sky.

'You're found now, so you can't be lost anymore. You can't loose,' she grinned up at him.

Dilandau smiled, watching the stars prickling into view. He sighed and looked back down at her, 'That's a nice way to see it. I like that.'

Meryl smiled, her eyes half-closing. Suddenly they snapped open again and she jumped in surprise, her tail bushing. 'What's that?' she demanded pointing into the air.

'What?' Dilandau looked in the direction of her point, confused.

'It was there a second ago...' Meryl looked annoyed and concerned. 'There's another one! Wait, it's gone again...'

Dilandau threw back his head and laughed, 'Fireflies! They don't have those in Fanelia?'

'No, what are they?' Meryl gazed around as more dots of light appeared and disappeared around them.

'They're bugs. I don't know why they do that,' Dilandau watched her tail whipping excitedly around. 'I guess Fanelia's too high in the mountains for them, maybe.'

'They're neat!' Meryl caught one in her paw and looked at it more closely. It _was_ a bug, and now it was an angry bug. She let it go and it sped darkly away. 'They don't _sting_, do they?'

'No, they just light like that,' Dilandau caught one himself and shaped his hand into a small cage for it, watching it blink annoyedly. 'Weird, aren't they? There'll be more, later in the year. This is just the early ones, I guess they're coming out so soon because it's so hot this year.'

'Is it?' Meryl caught another and cupped both paws around it.

'For Astoria. There's a cool wind that tends to come off the ocean, keeps Palas cooler than the more inland places.'

'Stop knowing things!' Meryl sat up and put her hands to her hips, her firefly escaping quickly. 'How do you do that? Have you memorized the Farmers' Almanac or something?'

'I'm... _sorry_?' Dilandau raised an eyebrow and Meryl fell over laughing. 'I was never able to read much in Zaibach, since I wasn't supposed to know how, so I got in the habit of committing things to memory.'

'That which you could,' Meryl melted lazily back to the ground.

'Yeah,' Dilandau nodded. 'When they didn't fvk with my brain.'

'Mmhm,' Meryl agreed sleepily.

'Go to bed... or the fire flies will eat you.'

'Eek,' Meryl answered dispassionately. But she pushed herself up and wandered back towards the palace anyway. Dilandau watched the fire flies a moment longer before following.


	23. A Familiar Face

Twin Moons

Chapter Twenty-Two

A Familiar Face

Dilandau and Celena exchanged confused glances as they found both of themselves sitting outside of the box on Tuesday. Dilandau was sat between Celena and Allen just behind the box, which apparently would be filled by somebody else today. He felt curiosity rising within him as he looked around the courtroom expectantly. Who was going to be in the box?

Most of the audience was likewise looking curiously round for some indication of who would be answering questions that day. The guards, who had, as usual escorted Dilandau into the room, left again, which was most _un_usual. After a few minutes, they returned, a new person stalking between them to the box.

His arms and legs were shackled and he wore drab, patchy clothes and a sullen, angry expression. The daylight that spilled through the courtroom's high windows shown off his bald head and thick, round glasses. His thin, ugly face was twisted into a scowl of hatred and anger. He walked with a slight limp and was hunched, as though to hide himself from his onlookers.

Celena and Dilandau screamed in unison, making everyone in the courtroom start and shift their focus back on the two. Celena curled up, trying to disappear. Dilandau looked about to bolt from the room.

Allen caught hold of Dilandau's wrist. Dilandau quickly changed his tactics from running to clinging to Allen's arm and mumbling incoherently. Erise, sitting on Celena's other side, wrapped an arm behind Celena's back and whispered softly to her. Celena pressed herself into Erise, sobbing hysterically.

If anyone had been paying attention to the man who had just walked into the room while this was happening, they would have seen a vicious smirk tugging at the man's lips.

Allen put the hand that Dilandau wasn't currently cutting off the circulation to on the boy's shoulder. 'Dilandau, who is he?' the knight asked, suddenly quite sure of what the answer would be.

'S-sorcerer,' Dilandau whimpered, shaking and not easing his death grip on Allen's arm.

Erise sighed, stroking Celena's hair, 'You two should have been warned about this. Look, he's shackled. He can't hurt you. He can't touch you. Ever again.'

Dilandau glanced up, through his hair, to where the sorcerer was taking his seat in the box. His heart slowed its frantic pace as he saw shackled feet disappearing inside the box. His hands loosened slightly, but he still clung to Allen's arm and Allen made no attempt to shake him off.

'Why weren't they warned?' he demanded, glaring at Erise.

Erise was shocked and hurt at the look from Allen. 'Dryden wanted the panel to be able to see their reactions to him,' she said defensively. 'I had no idea they would be so strong.'

Allen looked ahead of him without answering. Dilandau glanced back at the sorcerer and met his gaze as the man looked from him to Celena, intrigued. He shrank back further in his chair, dipping his head lower and leaning closer to Allen. Allen could still feel his hands shaking, though it was no longer visible. Celena had not immerged from Erise's shoulder.

As the courtroom became quiet again, Dryden stood to call attention back to the front. The sorcerer glared at him, his thick glasses magnifying the hate in the eyes behind them. Dryden addressed him, asking his name.

'Paruchi Nesthedel,' he answered shortly.

'And what was your position in Zaibach?' Dryden sat back in his chair, the court now fully attentive.

'I was one of the master sorcerers working directly under Dornkirk.'

'What is your connection to Dilandau Albatuo?'

Dilandau cringed and made himself smaller within his chair.

Paruchi grinned cruelly, 'I named him that to start.'

Paruchi scanned the faces of the panel, now gazing down at him in the same manner he'd looked down at countless experiments as he pulled them apart to examine their inner workings. They were going to dissect him, but in a much less messy way than he had his own subjects.

'Did you create him?' the princess of Basram asked in her loud, unpleasantly ringing voice.

He stopped his gaze on her, looking over her dark brown hair, thick eyebrows and square jaw. She was quite solidly built and if not for the fact that she wore a dress and had a large set of breasts protruding from her chest, she would have easily been mistaken for male. She was not short, but by no means tall, she sat on the left side of the panel table and was dwarfed by the Duke of Egzardia sitting next to her.

'Did you hear me?' she demanded angrily, her already too loud voice growing more so.

'Yes, I heard you,' he answered evenly. Obviously she was quite stupid and rash, expecting him to reply instantly with no time to think. She no doubt took little time to think herself and failed to see why anyone would. 'Several of us worked on Dilandau. I was one of the six working directly in altering the fates of individuals. Only the best of the sorcerers did.'

'Folken didn't,' Dilandau spat, interrupting the trial. 'Folken was smarter than all of you put together but he didn't play your sick games!'

'Folken was a disgrace!' Paruchi spun angrily around to glare at the offender. 'Folken only gained his position through charm! He had no skill or knowledge to deserve even to be the lowest ranking of sorcerers!'

Abruptly both Van and Dilandau were shouting at the sorcerer. Dryden stood up and called again for silence. 'Dilandau, I would ask that you please do not interrupt again,' he looked sternly at Dilandau who snorted, looking away and cast Van a sidelong glance. Van sat back in his chair looking angry and embarrassed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Celena eventually disentangled herself from Erise and Dilandau put his hands on the arms of his chair, digging his fingernails into the old wood. Fear seemed to have been replaced by hatred in both of them. Dilandau sat forward slightly, looking ablaze with fury as Celena sat very stiffly upright, her posture perfect and her eyes locked unwaveringly on the back of the sorcerer's head, looking like nothing so much as ice.

Paruchi continued in his contemptuous, superior attitude as the day progressed. He answered questions, as Dryden had known he would. He loved nothing better than to boast of his accomplishments. He happily confirmed what Dilandau and Celena had said, scoffing at how weak and timid Dilandau was without the meticulous attention and tweaking of the sorcerers.

'Yes, we did intend for him to die in the last battle of the Great War. He'd worn out his usefulness. We built him to command, he no longer had any soldiers to command and he was getting to be quite unstable.' Paruchi was annoyed with the stupid questions the panel asked. They focussed on such obvious things and were dismayed by his practicality. He took to leading the conversation as often as he could and throwing in self-congratulatory bits to the ends of his answers. 'He lasted quite a bit longer than we expected him to. He was a wildly successful experiment.'

Allen slapped his hand over Dilandau's mouth as he saw another torrent of swearing coming. The movement distracted the panel from asking another question long enough for Paruchi to again guide them to a topic he found more interesting.

'Tell me, how is it that they became separated?' he demanded in a curious tone.

'A witchi did it,' Duke Chid supplied, as one of the other leaders was about to rebuff the sorcerer for asking questions when he should be answering them.

'A witchi,' Paruchi scoffingly laughed. 'Unlikely.'

The panel members looked surprised, it wasn't often that you heard a person question a witch's abilities. 'Why is that?' Millerna asked affrontedly, she herself had quite a bit of respect for witches, having studied medicine for a few years.

'Please,' Paruchi sniffed. 'Witches have no real skill. They're just cultists who take people's money for false cures to illnesses.'

There were angry sounds form all over the courtroom at this arrogant fool's presumption.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When the trial broke, Celena followed Dilandau strait to his room rather than taking the time to freshen up before dinner. They grumbled furiously until Allen came in, closely followed by Erise, to see how they were both feeling.

'Why is that slime still alive?' Celena demanded angrily. 'Not a bit of remorse. Not the slightest care. Did you see the way he looked at everyone? Like he thought himself a god!'

Dilandau snorted, 'Of course he thinks himself a god. He _is_ a sorcerer.'

'What did Dryden do to make him testify? Does he get to _live_ for that?' Celena glared piercingly at Erise.

'No,' Erise shook her head with a sigh. 'He's only had his trial date moved up. And that what he said today won't count against him for his own trial.'

Celena and Dilandau broke into angry protests.

'Quiet!' Allen said in a serious, commanding tone. 'He's been in custody for months. Now it will just be all the sooner that he reaches the gallows.'

The two grumbled for a little while but let the argument drop. Allen was right; there was no real difference, only that now they knew of Paruchi's existence within Astoria. It was comforting to know that at least one of the inner circle of sorcerers had been captured. But that wouldn't stop them from waking up with a gasp from nightmared memories in the wee hours.


	24. Wrapping up

Twin Moons

Chapter Twenty-Three

Wrapping up

Dilandau looked at himself in the mirror. There was a light dusting of pink across his cheeks and nose but the initial flush of painful bright red had thankfully faded over the past few days. He poked at it and it made a painful protest. He was fascinated with the stiff, itchy feel of the lightly scorched skin. He'd never had a sunburn before; he'd never spent enough time out of doors to acquire one.

He stepped back and looked at himself at a greater distance. The burn crossing the bridge of his nose added quite a bit of unfamiliar color to his face. It made the pale shirts Celena had insisted he wear during the trial (some mad idea that the colors he showed up in would have an effect on what the panel thought of him) look slightly more well placed.

'It's open,' he replied to a knock at the door and Celena appeared in a pale green dress with her hair pulled back from her face.

She sat herself at the foot of his bed and smiled up at him, the morning light playing across her hair. 'So what do you think they have in store for us today? It looks like they're almost done, I think.'

Dilandau settled onto the vanity stand's stool and sighed, 'Anything's better than yesterday.'

'Too true,' Celena agreed fidgeting with her skirts. 'After the trial... are you going to come back home?'

Dilandau gazed at her for a while before answering, 'I don't want to impose on Allen more than I already have.'

Celena looked down at the skirt fabrics she was balling her hands around, 'That means no...'

Dilandau leaned back against the edge of the vanity stand, failing to notice how desperately uncomfortable that was. He sighed at the unhappy look on Celena's face, 'I hate being a burden.'

'You're not!' Celena protested, but she thought her voice lacked conviction and she knew that she really had no idea. She herself must be a burden on her brother, who was she to say that Dilandau wasn't?

Celena stormed out of the room, angry that she had no good reason to.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dilandau found himself in the box once again, but the questions didn't last long. Shortly before lunch hour the panel seemed unable to think of anything else to ask and were shuffled off to deliberate amongst themselves as everyone else was sent out to wander the palace grounds and feel useless and bored. Dilandau lay on the grass next to the little cobbled canal and gazed up into the clouds and Meryl wandered out to keep him company while Celena followed Allen to the library where he and Erise were conversing in their usual calm, quiet manner.

In a small study with an ovular table and comfortable chairs, the panel ate sandwiches and thought their own thoughts. Dryden sipped some tea that had accompanied the sandwiches and gazed around the table at the other panel members. They all looked vaguely troubled and thurougly confused.

'Are there any thoughts that might be shared?' Dryden asked and the panel members looked slightly startled.

'I think,' Duke Chid spoke softly, his head adviser, Voris, sitting calmly next to him but leaving the young duke to his own decisions as they had so often been sound through his short reign, 'that he should be fully pardoned.'

Millerna smiled at him, looking proud and happy. Leaders from the other represented countries looked uncomfortable and unsure. Van looked the small duke very seriously in the eye and countered, 'Chid... he destroyed your country and killed your father. Don't you think you're being awfully lenient?'

Chid shook his head, 'Now that's just plain wrong, Lord Van. Arrows killed my father, Dilandau was piloting a guymelef at the time, so he obviously wasn't the one to shoot my father. You sound as though you're trying to blame him for the entire war, Lord Van, and you just can't. He wasn't even in a real position of power.'

'I have to agree with Duke Chid,' the princess of Basram said unexpectedly. All eyes shifted to her, stunned. Of all people, she seemed the least likely to show any signs of compassion or feeling.

'I hate to be terribly predictable,' Dryden said as everyone's heads swiveled back towards him, 'but I would also that he be given a full pardon.'

Millerna nodded beside him, 'As do I. I have not know Dilandau much, but I've know Celena since the end of the war and I trust her judgement of character. I also believe it would be unfair to punish a soldier for following his orders after we've come to an agreement and truce with the country at which we were warring. That completely aside, I truly believe that his actions were not his own as we have heard, from him as well as the sorcerer, of the mind altering drugs he was being given.'

The other royals in the room looked uncertainly at Van and he suddenly knew that whatever his decision was, the rest would follow suit. He felt a great weight in his stomach as he looked back at them. Everyone in the room now had their eyes on him. He could not remember ever having been so uncomfortable. He looked down at the table and thought, memories battling in his mind.

He had only met Dilandau in person twice, once at the end of a blade. The only real impression he had of Dilandau from the war was through the great metal hulk of a guymelef, but he'd heard enough out of the psychotic to form a full idea of his character.

Now, however, none of it fit at all. Dilandau showed no sign of being anything like he had during the war. Meryl trusted him. Meryl never trusted anyone. It had taken her nearly a month to warm up to Hitomi at all, and here she had almost instantly befriended the former destroyer of her home and nearly everything she'd grown up with and knew.

'I...' Van looked back up at the expectant faces around him and gulped, 'I believe him. I can not, in good conscience, condemn him.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Meryl was teaching Dilandau how to catch a trout in ones hand when a maid bustled through the trees and spotted them. 'Master Dilandau, Miss Meryl, everyone's being called back to the courtroom,' she announced slightly breathlessly.

Dilandau wondered with a slight grin pulling at his lips how many maids were out in the garden looking for him. He stood up, shaking water from his hand and abandoning the fish he's been cajoling, to follow her back towards the building. Meryl was close behind him, mourning that she'd had to give up on her trout.

Dilandau's whole body prickled with nervousness as he climbed into the box and watched the panel file back into the room. They had taken far too short a time deliberating. Was that good or bad? He was chewing his lip quite raw when Dryden finally stood and started speaking.

'This panel of judges of the Allied Nations has reached a decision. I could make a large formal speech, but I think you've all waited long enough to hear a verdict. We have decided that Dilandau Albatuo shall here by be granted a full pardon for his part in the Fate War.'

Dilandau didn't realize that he wasn't breathing until he abruptly started again. He fell back in his chair and laughed breathlessly with giddy relief. The rest of the formalities of the trial were a blur until he found himself being swept away by Celena and Allen who were both talking excitedly to him.

He soon found himself in his room, Celena demanding that he freshen up and attend dinner downstairs with everybody else. He laughed and agreed before she whipped out of the room to go do the same. He fell back on his bed, his heartbeat finally slowing back to normal. Allen grinned from near the door. 

'I told you you'd win,' Allen said smugly.

'So you did,' Dilandau sighed happily.

'Glad it's over?'

'You have no idea,' Dilandau laughed.

'I thought you would be,' Allen laughed too. 'We'll head back home tomorrow then.'

Dilandau looked up at him, his face alight with joy. 'O-okay,' he stammered in reply as Allen turned and left.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dinner was a fabulous and lighthearted affair. Everyone was happy to be done with the trial and to have ended it on such a good note. People were laughing and drinking and gorging themselves.

While some were still partying, Dilandau snuck off to the side of the canal and stared up at the stars and fireflies.

After a few minutes he heard quiet footsteps on the grass coming towards him. Meryl plopped herself down next to him and smiled. 'So how's it feel to be a free man?'

Dilandau chuckled, 'It's weird. Suddenly some panel of royal guys is telling me I'm a good person, but it's hard for that to sink in. I still feel like I've done some pretty unforgivable things, and even though they forgive me, I don't know if I can.'

Meryl watched him in the purplish light of the rising Mystic Moon. She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and said in a quiet, non-joking voice, 'I believe you're a good person, if that makes you feel any better.'

He stared back at her in the half-light for several minutes before quietly answering. 'It does. Thank you.'

Fin


End file.
